 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
CIVIL REGISTRATION IN ENGLAND AND WALES
The requirement to register a birth, marriage or death in England and Wales came into effect on 1 July 1837. The indexes of all registrations since that date form part of the General Register Office (GRO) and are open to inspection by the public at the Family Records Centre. They were previously held at St Catherine's House on the corner of Kingsway in London - hence the reason why these records are still affectionately known as the 'St Catherine's Records'. The Centre is run by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) and the Public Records Office (PRO) which have websites at http://www.ons.gov.uk and http://www.pro.gov.uk respectively. The address of the Centre is:
Details of Births, Marriages and Deaths up to 1983 are recorded in separate alphabetical indexes, each covering the preceding three month period and dated March, June, September and December. From 1984 the indexes are arranged in alphabetical order for the full year. The indexes may be examined without charge. They are handwritten to December 1865 and typewritten thereafter, although the earlier volumes are also gradually being replaced by typewritten (or printed) indexes. The GRO indexes are compiled from the entries sent in from local Register Offices and, inevitably, omissions and errors occur. If you are fairly certain that an entry should be recorded but there is no suitable reference at the GRO, it is certainly worth contacting the local Register Office and asking them to check their records.
Bear in mind that the quarter in which an event took place was not necessarily the quarter in which it was registered - always check at least the following quarter.
Obtaining Certificates
In general, the indexes give only the Surname, Christian names, name of Registration District, Volume and Page Reference of each registered event. However, more information can invariably be gleaned by examining a copy or extract of the original certificate. Having first found the appropriate entry in the Index, the associated certificate can be obtained, on payment of £6, by application in person at the Family Records Centre and local Register Offices, or, alternatively, by postal application at a cost of £13 (if the exact reference is known - £16 if it is not) from:
The General Register Office
Postal Applications Section,
Smedley Hydro,
Trafalgar Road,
Birkdale,
SOUTHPORT
PR8 2HH
United KingdomA mass of useful information about the FRC (including opening hours, how to get there, what resources are available and what costs are involved) can be found on the relevant ONS Web pages. This excellent site also provides full details of how to apply for certificates by post and telephone, including a table of costs and downloadable application forms - well worth a visit! Certificates can also be ordered by e-mailing certificate.services@ons.gov.uk
Register Offices
Certificates of births, marriages and deaths can also be ordered from local Register Offices. Before doing so, however, the following should be borne in mind.
- Register Offices do not have such detailed indexes as the GRO.
- Births are generally indexed by sub-district; for marriages it is necessary to know the church concerned as there is no central index (although some of the larger offices are currently compiling composite indexes).
- A local Register Office will usually search a five year period for a particular event - if you have the exact details it can be quicker and cheaper to order from here.
- Remember that the reference number from the GRO Indexes has no relevance in local Register Offices.
Births
During the early years of civil registration many births, particularly those of illegitimate children, were not registered; indeed, until 1875 when it became compulsory, there was no penalty for failure to do so. Parents were given 6 weeks in which to register the birth; after 6 weeks and up to 6 months the birth could be registered on payment of a fine. After 6 months, with very few exceptions, a birth could not be registered. Not surprisingly it was fairly common for parents arriving to register a child a few days beyond the 6 week deadline to adjust the birth date to come within the allowed 42 days in order to avoid paying the fine. Since 1875 the father of an illegitimate child can only be named on the birth certificate if he is present at the registration and gives his consent.
Birth registrations did not require the child being registered to have a first name. Entries for children who had not been named at the time of registration are found at the end of entries for the surname in question, listed under 'Male' or 'Female'. Inevitably, mistakes were made at the time of registration and the reversal of christian names, in particular, was common - a child whose name was intended to be Henry John may well have been registered as John Henry.
If the time of birth is given on a certificate, it frequently implies a multiple birth.
From the September quarter of 1911 the birth indexes also give the maiden name of the mother.
Marriages
After the December quarter of 1911 the Marriage Indexes give the maiden name of the bride alongside the surname of the groom and vice-versa. There are separate alphabetical entries for bride and groom, so assuming the bride's maiden name is known it can be cross checked (in the index of the same Quarter) to ensure that the volume and page references coincide.
Ages on marriage certificates are often unreliable. 21 and the expression "of full age" both mean that the person was 21 and upwards - if they were telling the truth! In theory, a marriage certificate should state if the father of the bride or groom was deceased but in practice this requirement was often ignored.
A widow will be listed in the index under her previous married name and not under her maiden name - but her maiden name will appear on the certificate. Marriages which took place in non-conformist chapels prior to 1898 had to be carried out in the presence of a (civil) Registrar. Such marriages will often be recorded in the Registrar's own register (also used to record marriages which took place in the Register Office) and not in the Register of the chapel concerned. They will appear in the St Catherine's indexes but will not be easily traced in a local Register Office.
Remember that a marriage register need only be deposited with the local Registrar when it is full - a church where few marriages take place may still be using a register commenced in 1837 and the local Register Office will have no copy of this book.
Deaths
From 1837 a death had to be registered within 8 days; in 1875 this was reduced to 5 days. From 1866 onwards, death indexes give the age of the deceased at death but too much reliance should not be placed on the age given on a death certificate as the only person who could probably be relied upon to know the true facts was not available to provide them! The accuracy of the age given depended on the person giving the information and, particularly in the early days when there was no birth certificate to verify the statement, it may be a number of years out. Many people deliberately lost several years from their age at some time in their lives and actually came to believe in their 'new' age.
Present at the death means what it says; In attendance means that the person registering the death was not actually present but attended at the Register Office to register it.
With very few exceptions, a death cannot be registered until a positive identification of the body has been made. This can cause considerable confusion to the family historian. If there is no body, a death cannot be registered. If the body is recovered (eg from a mining accident or shipwreck) several years later and is identified, the death is registered as at the date of recovery but the age given will be that which applied at the time of death.
Unless a body is legally identified, it cannot be registered under a specific name - hence entries in the indexes for, for example Old Joe aged about 65, for an itinerant worker with no known surname, and the pages of entries to be found at the end of each volume listing 'unknown' or 'unidentified' bodies with estimated ages. If you have 'lost' a death, particularly in the early days of civil registration, it would be worth checking these lists to see if you can spot a likely entry in the correct Registration District.
If an inquest was held, the death would have been registered in the quarter when the inquest was completed. This may be some time after the actual death, particularly if there was an adjournment, and the entry may be in a later quarter than you anticipate.
|
|