Civil Registration The recording of births, marriages and deaths by a registrar

At the end of this session you will be able to: Explain when and why Civil Registration was introduced in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland Explain what information is found on certificates of birth, marriage or death Explain why certificates are useful to Family Historians Begin to interpret information found on certificates take steps towards obtaining certificates Understand how to use BMD indexes Know where to find BMD indexes

History of Civil Registration Introduced in England and Wales in Sept 1837 Scotland 1 st January 1855 Ireland – Protestant marriages 1stApril 1845 all births, marriages and deaths 1 st January 1864 Civil registration was introduced for the purposes of taxation, national security,to find out how long people were living and what was killing them !

Where to obtain certificates the local registration office – in person, by post or phone Or – and much easier General Register Officeeneral Register Office - Smedley Hydro, Trafalgar Rd, Southport Note you cannot make personal visits here the Registrar General of Scotland the Registrar General in Dublin upto 1921 the Registrar General of Northern Ireland from 1922 Cost ?

To obtain a certificate from the registrar you need to be able to give some information Names Dates (approximate to within 5-10 years either way) Place – an address if you have one, place of birth, marriage or death if you know it The more information you have the easier it will be to find your certificate

England & Wales Birth marriage and death Index Otherwise known as St Catherine’s Index, or the GRO index, Is available on microfiche in Blackburn Library Or online at

Irish BMD Index Is online at (at a cost) Or on microfiche at the Mormon Family History Centre in Chorley (free)

Scotland Has indexes from , 1927 and 1952 Basic details cost 30p Images of original records £1.20 Or Registrar General of Scotland New Register House Charlotte Square Edinburgh EH1 3YT

Ireland Or Registrar General Registrar General of Northern Ireland Joyce House Oxford House 8-11 Lombard St Chichester Street Dublin 2 Belfast BT1 4HL Eire

Registration – how does it work ? When an event BMD occurs it is registered either at the registration office or by a registrar The registrar enters the details into the register – this produces the original certificate Copies of the original are produced and given to the informants and/or researchers. All copies used to be handwritten, copied from the original register and were therefore open to mistranscription At the end of each quarter of the year the registrar compiles a list of all ‘events’ – this is the local index – this local index is then sent to the General Register Office, and a national index is compiled

Registration Districts For registration purposes the country is divided into districts and sub districts These have changed several times since 1837, and have changed very recently Each district was originally assigned a number – the numbers for the original districts are still used to obtain certificates, but new ‘events’ will assigned the new district names and numbers

Indexes The indexes are lists which give limited information but help towards pinpointing a certificate There are seperate indexes for births, marriages and deaths They are arranged by year, quarter of the year and alphabetically So if you know a person was born in a particular year but don’t know the month, you will be searching through 4 indexes

The birth certificate will tell you: the forename and sex of the child, the father's name and occupation, the mother's name and maiden name, the place of birth, the informant's name and address and the date of birth. The surname of the child (which can be any name the parents choose) has been entered only since 1 April, Before that date it has to be inferred from the father's surname.

In the case of an illegitimate child, only the mother's name is normally given; before 1875, the mother was allowed to name any man as the father - he was not required to acknowledge paternity. An illegitimate child can now be issued with a birth certificate which gives him or her the surname of either the father or the mother. In order to reduce embarrassment for illegitimate children the so-called 'short' birth certificate was introduced in It is cheaper to buy than a 'full' certificate, but is of no genealogical value.

The marriage certificate will tell you: the date and place of marriage, and for both parties their age, condition, rank or profession, residence, father's name and occupation, and the names and signatures of the bride, groom and witnesses. Giving one's correct age was not compulsory and, up to the mid-twentieth century, is often given as 'full' (ie over 21). 'Minor' or 'under age' meant between twelve and twenty for a girl, between fourteen and twenty for a boy, until 1929 when the lower age limit was raised to sixteen for both parties.

Death Registration Since 1 July, 1837, the recording of deaths in England and Wales is similar to that for births, the main difference being that a death must normally be registered within five days of the event, as opposed to six weeks allowed for births. The death certificate will tell you:  the date and place of death,  the name, sex and occupation of the deceased, the cause of death  and the informant's name and address.  From 1 April 1982, the name of the mother is also entered.  Since 1 April, 1969, the date and place of birth of the deceased, the usual address and the maiden name in the case of a married woman, are also given.  Until 1874, entering the cause of death was not a legal requirement and registrars were encouraged to use popular, rather than medical terminology.

Failure to find an entry This happens surprisingly often and there are several reasons why: Registration in another district - Not registered - in some parts of the country as many as 15 per cent of all births were not registered during the first decade after There was no penalty on parents' failing to register a birth until 1875, many believing that registration was not necessary if the child was baptised. 100% compliance was not achieved until about Names incorrectly indexed