Register Office

Certificates may be ordered in person, by post or, with a suitable electronic payment card, over the telephone.  Postal application need not necessarily be on an application form, a letter will suffice if you clearly list as much of the following as you have:  full name/s & surname at birth; date & place of birth, parents names, occupations and address at the time of the birth, and mother's maiden surname.

Applications will always receive prompt attention and in most cases certificates will be produced and ready for collection or despatch within 5 working days.

If there is any reason why your certificate can not be produced within 5 days we will contact you about the delay within 3 working days.

An Express Service is available at an additional fee with certificates ready either the same or following day depending on the time your application is received.

Fees and Postage

The current fee for each Standard certificate is £7.00 plus a postage and handling charge of £0.50p per order for UK and Europe and £1.00 for other overseas countries.

An Express Service is available for which an additional fee of £3.00 per certificate is payable. All applications must be accompanied by the appropriate fee.

Cheques must be drawn on a UK bank, in Sterling and made payable to 'Superintendent Registrar'. Overseas customers should be able to obtain such from their bank. Overseas postal orders are not acceptable.

We can now accept credit or debit card payments. However you should not email creditor debit card details as we do not yet have a secure system.

Please note that certificates are posted at your own risk. 'Recorded Delivery' (UK) is available for an extra £1.00, and 'Special Delivery Next Day' (UK) for an extra £4.00. 'International Signed For' service available for an extra £3.30. Please note items sent on any of these Royal Mail services may be despatched up to 24 hours later than ordinary mail. E-mail us at registrar@hartlepool.gov.uk

Check out our on line indexes at http://www.nebmd.co.uk/  or http://www.teesvalley-indexes.co.uk/  

Certificate Types.

Standard Birth Full details including parents' names

Short Birth Name, date and sub district of birth only

Standard Death Full details

Standard Marriage Full details.

Birth and death certificates will generally be produced in typewritten form; marriage certificates will generally be scanned copies of the original entry subject to the quality of the original.

We will always consider requests from genealogists for scanned certificates in respect of birth or death entries - subject to the quality of the original. Similarly some customers prefer handwritten marriage certificates. In either case there will be an additional fee per certificate as per the Express Service, and handwritten certificates may take longer.

Boundaries

There have been few boundary changes since 1837, but there are occasions where records from part of Hartlepool are held at Stockton. References in the GRO national index for Stockton or Durham South Eastern could occasionally refer to records currently held at Hartlepool, Stockton, Bishop Auckland or Peterlee.

If it turns out that your application is for an entry from one of these records, your cheque is made payable to 'Superintendent Registrar' and you have included return postage, your application will be forwarded to the appropriate Register Office.

Please note: As we are a relatively small office, we do not have sufficient staff to carry out searches in response to telephone calls. We will however, respond to telephone and email enquiries where possible, but only to confirm the existence, in our index, of a matching entry and provide a reference number to aid your application. We cannot verify parent's names or any other details in the entry over the telephone. (But check out our index services and verification facilities at http://www.teesvalley-indexes.co.uk/  )

No information can ever be given from any entry except in the form of a certified copy of that entry.

No Trace?

Where we are unable to locate any entry your fee will be returned along with any suggestions or advice we may be able to offer to aid you in your search.

If we locate the entry in a neighbouring registration district's records, then we will simply forward your application to them, but only if your cheque or postal order is made out to 'Superintendent Registrar'. . . . . .

and finally please remember: We are unable to accept any responsibility for items lost in the First Class or Second Class post. Further, replacement, certificates can only be issued upon receipt of the full fee and handling charge. We are not able to carry out any investigation into lost mail unless one of the Royal Mail signed for or guaranteed delivery services are used.