The General Registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths in England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man started in July 1837. The original registers are held by the Register Office for the area concerned, and a copy is sent to the General Register Office at Stockport. Copies of the entries may be obtained in the form of certificates on payment of a fee (currently seven pounds sterling per certificate) to the General Register office, and may be ordered on-line at  the GRO on-line ordering service. They may also be ordered from the local Register Office responsible for the registration, but detailed arrangements may vary between offices.

The registers are completely indexed, and until recently the indexes could be searched in person for no charge at the Family Record Centre in Islington, North London. The Family Record Centre has now closed, and the indexes are available in microfiche format at the National Archives premises at Kew, and at public libraries in Manchester, Birmingham, Bridgend and Plymouth. Local indexes are also available at each Register Office, also at many record offices and libraries. Images of the complete index pages may be accessed on-line for a fee at  www.findmypast.com ,  www.ancestry.co.uk  and  www.familyrelatives.com , amongst others.

Index entries relating to persons with the surname "Debenham" and "Debnam" have been extracted and have been recorded in a database. To respect the privacy and security of living persons, and in line with the policy followed by the government for Census returns, only those entries that are 100 or more years old are available via this web site. Limited searches of these entries may be carried out without charge in the on-line archives of the Guild of One-Name Studies.