Welcome

Hello and thank you for visiting ManxBMD.com. This site is home to a database of the indexes to births, marriages and deaths which have been registered on the Isle of Man under Civil Registration.

What's available

Only records from Civil Registration can be found here. Compulsory registration of births and deaths started in 1878, much later than in England & Wales. Marriage registration became compulsory in 1884, however there are a large number of entries prior to this.

Currently the complete index for Island births and deaths 1877 - 1979 is available to search. There are plenty of marriage records to search as well, but unfortunately transcription is not yet completed. Do please search and you never know what you might find!

Most of the queries are for help in searching and there is now an example below of how you can make the most of your search.

Update - February 2013

It's pleasing to see such a large number of positive messages from people who this site has helped. Sadly, there has been an equal amount of negative comments from people demanding to know when the database will be complete and sending cryptic messages expecting their research to be done for them. The work done on this site is done by a small team of volunteers, without whom this project would probably have ground to a halt. Each record is transcribed twice for accuracy and each anomaly has to be checked against original index pages, all of which is very time consuming. Please note: this site is not affiliated with the Isle of Man Civil Registry. If you want to order a certificate, you will need to contact the Registry directly - The Douglas Civil Registry Office, Deemsters Walk, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 3AR Telephone: 01624 687039.

Some tips on searching - finding Uncle Thomas

Let's use an imaginary Uncle Thomas Corlett who died aged 76 in 1884, in Ballaugh. If you search for Thomas Corlett, you'll get many results, including those with Thomas as a middle name. When you type in the surname or first name, as you tab out of the field the LIKE drop-down menu will become active. Now you have the choice of Exact Match or Like. Choosing Exact Match will give you all those called Thomas Corlett - no middle names included.

But the only entries are for Thomas Corlett's who were registered in Douglas. None of these are the ones we are looking for.

So let's change the search slightly and look for the Corlett surname and the district Ballaugh. This time, although there are a number of entries, we can see the one we are looking for: 1884, Corlett, Thomas William, 76, Ballaugh, D1, 24. We know we had an uncle Thomas, what we didn't know was that his full name was Thomas William Corlett. But the age at death and year show that this entry is the most likely one. So if you don't find what you're looking for straight away, try narrowing your search. For information, Corlett is the most popular surname on the Island!

What will the indexes tell me?

The index entries will give you the year, surname, given names and the area where registered. For deaths, the age at death is also included. There will also be a reference number to the volume and entry where the certificate can be found.

If you think you've found a relative and want more information....

If you want further information on the event, you will need to order the certificate from the Isle of Man Civil Registry YOU CANNOT ORDER CERTIFICATES FROM MANXBMD.COM. If you supply the reference number it costs £7.00, if you don't then it's £9.50 per certificate. Send your cheque or PO (made payable to the Isle of Man Government) along with the details from the index to:

The Douglas Civil Registry Office, Deemsters Walk, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 3AR

If you don't want to apply for a certificate just yet, especially if you're not sure the person is your relative, then you can try the census. The Isle of Man Censuses can be found on Ancestry.com