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How to Order an Official Extract

There are various options for obtaining an extract of an entry from the registers:

• Apply in person at New Register House or in the ScotlandsPeople Centre, and we will send your extract within 5 working days. If you use our priority service before 13:00 your extract will be ready for collection by 16:00 that day;  or after 13:00 it will be ready by 11:00 the next working day.

• Apply in writing and we will send your extract within 10 working days. If you request our priority service we will despatch the extract within 1 working day by first class mail or air-mail.  You can use the downloadable versions of the forms below:

  Form SU3 (51 Kb PDF) if you are applying for an extract from the statutory birth, adoption, marriage, divorce, civil partnership and dissolution, death registers or the Old Parish Registers.

  Form SU9 (42 Kb PDF) if you are applying for an extract from the 1841 to 1911 census records.

   

  Form SU19 (45 Kb PDF) No trace divorce letters.  Although not an official extract, we issue a formal letter in support of a divorce application through the Courts as evidence of an individual's marital status within Scotland.  This letter has to cover the period from the date of marriage to the present date.  Both parties’ names, date and place of marriage must be provided.

   

• Apply by telephone using our Extract Ordering Service for post-1855 births, deaths and marriages.  Telephone number: +44 131 314 4411.  Open Monday to Friday 9:00 to 16:30. You will need to quote credit or debit card details.

• Search on the ScotlandsPeople website for births, marriages, deaths and the open census records.  We will send your extract within 15 working days.

Extracts will normally be produced electronically from images of the actual register page entry.  It is only in cases where the entry has been altered as a result of a Register of Corrected Entries (RCE) or contains a clerical error, that a typed extract may need to be issued.

The prices for these services are listed on our Leaflet S2 How to obtain an official extract from the records held in the custody of the Registrar General (45KB pdf file).

Official extracts from the Scottish records may also be obtained from local registrars of births, marriages and deaths, etc.  You can obtain details from the website of your local authority - see these links:

• Directory of Registrars in Scotland (60 Kb pdf file)

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