Births
It is important to approach the birth indexes with as much information as possible from other sources. If the birth took place between 1864 and 1880, the family were Catholic and the relevant area is known, it may be best to try to identify a baptism from parish records first. In many cases, if information rather than a birth certificate is the aim of the research, the parish record itself will be enough. If the area is known, but not the date, it may be useful to search the 1901 and 1911 census returns to obtain at least an approximate age and, hence, date of birth. If the names of siblings and the order of their birth are known, but the area and date are not, it may be necessary to search a wide range of years in the indexes. You should note all births of the names that occur in the family and then try to work out which births of the relevant names occur in the right order in the same registration district. If the name is unusual none of this may be necessary.

Marriages
As long as care is taken with surname variations and the names of both parties are known research in the marriage indexes is straightforward. If two people married each other, then the registration district, volume and page number references for them in the indexes have to be the same. It is simply necessary to crosscheck the two names in the indexes, working back from the approximate date of birth of the eldest child, if this is known, until two entries are found in which all three references correspond. Marriage records are especially important in the early years of civil registration, since they record the names of the fathers of people born c.1820 to c. 1840, as well as their approximate ages. This may provide evidence that can be used to establish earlier generations in parish records. For non-Catholic families, the value of these records is even greater, since the records of non-Catholic marriages start in 1845.

Deaths
As in the case of births it is essential to uncover as much information as possible from other sources before starting a search of the death indexes. If a date of birth is known from parish or other records, the 'age at death' given in the index, along with the registration district, provides at least a rough guide as to whether or not the death recorded is the relevant one. If the location of a family farm is known, the approximate date of death can often be worked out from the changes in the occupier recorded in the Valuation Books of the Land Valuation Office. Similarly, if the family possessed property, the Will Calendars of the National Archives after 1858 can be the easiest way to pinpoint the precise date of death. With such information, it is then usually a simple matter to pick out the relevant entry from the indexes. Information from a marriage entry may also be useful. Along with the names of the fathers of the parties marrying, the register entry sometimes also specifies that one or both of the fathers is deceased. There is no rule about this, however. The fact that a father is recorded as, say, 'John Murphy, labourer", it does not necessarily mean that he was alive at the time of the marriage. If an individual is recorded as deceased, this does at least provide an end point for any search for his death entry. Death records only occasionally name a surviving family member.

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