Ian You can apply for certificates for marriages which took place in Register Offices in just the same way that you can apply for certificates for marriages that took place in churches. I have many certificates for Register Office marriages. However, it would be good if the historic Register Office birth, marriage and death records could be digitised and made available through one of the commercial providers. I don't know if there are reasons why these have not been digitised, and I also await enlightenment! Debbie -----Original Message----- From: goons-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:goons-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Ian Preece via Sent: 15 February 2015 11:21 To: goons@rootsweb.com Subject: [G] Register Office Marriages - why no historic access? This is something I have accepted over the years, but never really understood the reason for it. If I want a marriage certificate for any of my family I can quite happily apply for and receive it unless of course they married at the Register Office. I could perhaps understand even if there was a time limitation, but why are no historic registers from the Register Office available for general public search, or even for scanning by the subscription-based companies? I am aware that on occasion they grant access for indexing projects (Herefordshire being a good local example for me). I assume they are simply retained by the RO - why are they not deposited in the same way that (most) parish registers are? I'm guessing there is a very obvious reason, I await enlightenment! Ian Preece