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The THIRD edition of this invaluable aid has now been released:

• coverage increased from 13 million names (in 2nd edition) to over 18 million names
• substantial increased coverage for Cambridgeshire (increased to 703,000 from 205,000), Lancashire (431,000 from 169,000), City of London (228,000 from 134,000), Northumberland (540,000 from 188,000), Sussex (801,000 from 315,000) and several other counties
• wildcat searching now provided
• now caters for surname selection from a scrolling list
• can be ordered online from my-history.co.uk for £29.95

The National Burial Index (NBI) complements the International Genealogical Index (IGI) (which is mainly a searching aid to births/christenings and marriages). The NBI contains over 18 million names of people buried in England and Wales between 1538 and 2008. It is compiled by the Federation of Family History Societies, with the first edition having been released in 2001 and the third edition (the current one) in March 2010. It is not a complete index to all burials but represents an enormous effort by family history societies over 15 years.

The information provided in the National Burial Index is taken from parish, non-conformist, Roman Catholic and cemetery registers. Wherever possible, transcriptions are made from original source records. Please note that the NBI does not include memorial inscription records

NBI Index Entries

• County of burial
• Parish or cemetery where the event of burial was recorded
• Date of burial
• Forename(s) of the deceased
• Surname of the deceased
• Age
• The society or group that transcribed the record

Search Illustration

(2nd edition)

Always check out the original source

The National Burial Index is exactly what it says - an INDEX. It should be used in conjunction with other research. Wherever possible the original source (or a copy of it) should be examined.

Coverage of the NBI varies significantly from county to county. It also varies from period to period. The following shows the number of entries for each county in the 3rd edition (numbers in brackets are for the 2nd edition). If a county is not listed (e.g. Carmarthenshire) then there are no entries for that county on the NBI.

• Bedfordshire 356,000 (356,000) - Berkshire 688,00 (356,000) - Brecon 11,000 (5,000) - Buckinghamshire 83,000 (83,000) - Cambridgeshire 703,000 (205,000) - Cardiganshire 164,000 (108,000) - Cheshire 544,000 (399,000) - Cornwall 111,000 (111,000) - Cumberland 92,000 (56,000) - Derbyshire 125,000 (82,000) - Devon 4,000 (4,000) - Dorset 330,000 (286,000) - Durham 743,000 (416,,000) - Essex 969,000 (508,000) - Glamorganshire 400,000 (361,000) - Gloucestershire 181,000 (170,000) - Hampshire 12,000 (12,000) - Herefordshire 94,000 (68,000) - Hertfordshire 138,000 (137,000) - Huntingdonshire 260,000 (210,000) - Isle of Man 7,000 (7,000) - Kent 241,000 (205,000) - Lancashire 431,000 (169,000) - Leicestershire 330,000 (329,000) - Lincolnshire 819,000 (711,000) - London City 228,000 (134,000) - Middlesex 93,000 (15,000) - Monmouthshire 11,000 (9,000) - Montgomeryshire 4,000 (1,000) - Norfolk 176,000 (105,000) - Northamptonshire 319,000 (197,000) - Northumberland 540,000 (188,000) - Nottinghamshire 281,000 (281,000) - Oxfordshire 223,000 (223,000) - Radnorshire 16,000 (11,000) - Rutland 19,000 (19,000) - Shropshire 176,000 (168,000) - Somerset 869,000 (755,000) - Staffordshire 800,000 (791,000) - Suffolk 1,256,000 (836,000) - Surrey 522,000 (370,000) - Sussex 801,000 (315,000) - Warwickshire 504,000 (504,000) - Westmorland 6,000 (6,000) - Wiltshire 300,000 (224,000) - Worcestershire 542,000 (542,000) - Yorkshire (City/Ainsty) 40,000 (34,000) - Yorkshire East Riding 61,000 (40,000) - Yorkshire North Riding 538,000 (386,000) - Yorkshire West Riding 2,314,000 (1,706,000)

• The National Burial Index 3rd edition is provided on a single CD. You will need a PC running Windows 98, XP, Vista or 7 with at least 2.8 gigabytes available on your hard disk. It can be ordered online from my-history.co.uk (at a cost of £29.95)
• Please note that the National Burial Index is NOT suited to running on any Apple Mac computer unless you have suitable emulation software (Apples Bootcamp, Microsoft Parallels or Fusion 4) and a licensed copy of Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7
• Many Record Offices and Local Studies Centres have the NBI loaded onto their computers where it can be accessed for free

• See Parish Registers, Non Parochial Registers or Burial Records for guidance onto how to access the source record associated with an NBI index entry.