You can go along to a main library which will have the Births, Marriages and Deaths indexes free, but all this will tell you is the quarter that their birth was registered in (eg Jan/Feb/Mar 1920), which may not even be when they were born as if they were born in Eg Dec 1919 their birth may not have been registered until January 1920, their name, where they were registered and possibly (after a certain date) their mothers maiden name. To find out any other information you will need to order their birth certificates which will cost you �7. Census records are only released after 100 years, so yes, the latest one available to view is the 1901 census. Do you have the details of your grandparents? If you have your grandparents birth certificates those will show the names, address and occupation of your Great Grandparents. There are books available (again in the library - you don't have to buy them) on how to trace your family, there are also a few magazines devoted to this subject (have a look in WH Smith) and there is a section devoted to genealogy in the answerbank under history. Good luck.