Which certificates we can provide
We can issue certificates for births, deaths, marriages and civil partnerships that were registered in Peterborough dating back to 1837. We cannot issue stillbirth certificates - you will need to contact the General Register Office for these (see below).
For any registrations prior to 1837, we recommend you explore church and parish records.
If the event took place somewhere in England and Wales outside of Peterborough, you can order a certificate from the registration district where the event took place. Visit the GOV.UK website to use their Register Office search tool.
You can also order certificates for elsewhere in England and Wales from the General Register Office. If you don't know exactly where an event took place, they may be able to help. You also need to contact the General Register Office to obtain stillbirth or adoption certificates.
The General Register Office can also supply copies of certificates for events that happened overseas and were registered with the British Consulate.
Scotland and Northern Ireland each have their own version of the General Register Office:
How to order certificates from us
You can order certificates using our online system. You can choose:
- Whether to use the standard or priority service
- Whether you receive the certificate by post or collect in-person from the Register Office
You can find more information on the standard and priority services below.
To help us locate a registration and issue the certificate(s), you need to tell us:
- Which type of certificate you require – birth, death, marriage or civil partnership
- Name(s) on the registration
- Date and place of the event
- Any other relevant information you have
Standard service – Peterborough certificates – costs and processing times
Cost: £12.50 per certificate
Processing time: up to 10 working days
How you receive your order: Second class post (included in fee) or collect in-person from Register Office
We will email you to confirm when we have posted your certificate or when it is ready to collect. If you didn’t supply an email address, we will phone you. If you come to collect a certificate, please bring valid photo ID with you to confirm your identity.
Priority service – Peterborough certificates - costs and processing times
Cost of priority service
We charge a priority fee of £26 for each registration you order certificates from, plus a fee of £12.50 for each certificate you purchase.
For example, if you purchase one birth certificate, we would charge a priority fee of £26 plus £12.50 for the certificate, totalling £38.50.
If you bought three copies of the same birth certificate, we would charge one priority fee of £26 followed by £12.50 for each certificate copy, totalling £63.50.
If you ordered one birth certificate and one marriage certificate, we could charge a priority fee of £26 and a fee of £12.50 for the birth certificate. We would also charge a priority fee of £26 and a fee of £12.50 for the marriage certificate. The total would be £77.00.
How and when you receive your priority service order
- Priority orders placed by 2pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays – we will issue the certificate on the same day. Orders will be sent by first class post or can be collected from Peterborough Register Office. We will email you to confirm when we have posted your certificate or when it is ready to collect. We can phone you if you don't have an email address.
- Priority orders placed by 2pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays – we will issue the certificate on the next working day. Orders will be sent by first class post or can be collected from Peterborough Register Office. We will email you to confirm when we have posted your certificate or when it is ready to collect. We can phone you if you don't have an email address.
Peterborough Register Office is open Mondays to Fridays, 9am to 4pm (excluding bank holidays). Please wait to hear from us before coming to collect a certificate order.
If you come to collect a certificate order, please bring valid photo ID with you to confirm your identity.