A Birth, Death and Marriage Exchange is a resource to put researchers in touch with others who wish to share information about details contained on birth, death or marriage certificates.

The IIGS™ BDM Exchange is open to all genealogists worldwide. We would hope that when you see the good things coming to you from IIGS™ you would like to become a member, but it is not a requirement.

There are many reasons and advantages, among them: using the BDM is often faster and cheaper than obtaining certificate information from the issuing authorities; if you are not sure which country your ancestor was born/married/died in, checking an international BDM Exchange index could save many hours of fruitless research and, of course, the people requesting information about a certificate are very likely related to the certificate holder.

You may search by lastname (surname) or by country. The surname entries are arranged alphabetically and each has one or more 2-letter codes following it. Those codes indicate which country exchange contains certificate information for that name. Click on the 2-letter code at the bottom of each index page to reach the individual country exchanges. The layouts of those pages differ and you will need to follow their instructions to reach the information you seek.

Please check with the individual country's BDM Exchange, their requirements may differ. If you have certificate information for a country other than those currently listed, please contact IIGS-GLOBAL_L@rootsweb.com

No. All submitters to the BDM Exchange keep their certificates, we simply enable people to contact you.

The BDM Exchange is a great way to dispose of unwanted certificates in a way that others may benefit. When you submit your certificate information, be sure to note that yours is an unwanted certificate.

Postage costs are best decided by the people making the actual exchange, but generally the person making the request would be expected to pay for postage costs.

No. The BDM Exchange is set up for the free exchange of information. If a submitter does demand money from you (other than reasonable postage) please contact us with the details.

Yes. We would love to include your exchange in our index. Please contact the Global Village Team to work out the details.

Why Thank you! We would love to have you join us, membership is free and available by completing the IIGS Membership Form