Civil registration of births, marriages and deaths commenced 1 July 1837 with the introduction of the first central register for England and Wales, held by the General Registrar at the General Register Office in London. The country was first divided into 27 regions, which in turn were divided into districts, under the control of Superintendent Registrars, and divided further into sub-districts, under the control of Registrars. In 1852 the number of regions was increased to 34 and regional areas were altered.

The year was divided into four quarters - March, June, September and December - with each quarter covering registrations recorded in that month and the two preceding months (ie the March quarter covered January February and March). At the end of each quarter, the Superintendent Registrars were required to send copies of all the births, marriages and deaths registered in that quarter to the General Registrar's office. Here they were compiled, alphabetically, into national birth, marriage and death indexes, one for each quarter year, then bound into volumes. Since 1984 the indexes have been compiled annually.

The registration of a birth, marriage or death had to take place at the register office for the locality in which the event took place, which may have been some distance from where the person or family usually lived. Each register office has its own index, so there should be two entries for each event, one in the local index and one in the GRO index. Occasionally an entry may be found in the local index but not in the GRO index. Other entries may appear indexed under slightly different spellings. With the many thousands of entries submitted each quarter by the local registrars, it is understandable that some may have been omitted or mis-transcribed.

Births
Registration of births was compulsory within 6 weeks. Parents who failed to register within the 6 weeks period were subject to a penalty of 7s 6d and registration wasn’t permitted after 6 months anyway, but there was no penalty for non-registration until 1874, when a £2 fine was introduced. It’s been estimated that approximately 5% of all births in those early years went unregistered, with the figure rising to as high as 15% in some areas. The reasons for this are varied. Until 1874 the onus was on the registrar to ensure that all births in his district were registered, by seeking out information on new births and obliging the parents to come forward. Most parents registered voluntarily within the 6 week period, but because by law the parents were only obliged to answer the registrar’s questions, if asked, not to report the birth in the first place, those that missed the 6 week interval were discouraged from coming forward by the 7s 6d fine. Some did eventually, and gave a false date of birth to avoid the fine; others deliberately avoided registration to conceal the real age of a child in order to send him or her out to work as soon as possible (from 1833 a number of Acts of parliament were gradually making it illegal for children under a certain age work in particular industries); and some parents genuinely believed that registration wasn’t necessary if the child was baptised. The registrar was paid a sum for each registration, but this only served to compound the problem, as remuneration per event inevitably led to cases of fraudulent registration - children being registered twice under different forenames and the registration of children who didn’t exist.
After 1874, the numbers of unregistered births dropped dramatically, but there have still been few instances, even to the present day.

Deaths
A death had to be registered within 5 days and it’s rare to find a death has gone unregistered as there could not be a burial without a death certificate.

Marriages
The registering and indexing of marriages was more complex. The Superintendent Registrar had a duty to ensure that all marriages were recorded, wherever they took place. He was authorised to conduct civil marriage ceremonies at the register office and he was required to be present at all but Anglican, Quaker or Jewish ceremonies, though since 1898 other denominations have been able to apply for the same privileged status. Marriages that took place in church were recorded by the clergy in the marriage registers as usual and also in duplicate books for registration purposes. When the duplicate books were full they were passed to the local registrar, but the registrar also visited all the local churches each quarter and recorded all the marriages up to date.

The Indexes
The indexes do not contain all of the information found on a certificate. The basic information of surname, forename, registration district, and volume and page number where the entry can be found, is listed for all three events.
Births were generally indexed under the father’s surname, unless the child was illegitimate, in which case the birth was usually registered under the mother’s surname. Marriages are indexed under the surnames of both parties, and in the case of a second marriage for a woman, she’ll be found indexed under her previously married surname.

The following information was added at a later date:

January 1866: age at death appears on the death entry, with the date of birth replacing this in April 1969.

September 1911: mother’s maiden name appears on the birth entry

January 1912: spouse’s surname appears on the marriage entry

The birth, marriage and death indexes can be consulted free of charge at the General Register Office in London, or on microfiche at most record offices and main libraries.

Alternatively, images of the indexes can be downloaded and viewed online, on a pay per view basis, at 1837online

Another popular site is FreeBMD, where you’ll find transcriptions of the indexes. This is an ongoing project and currently incomplete, but the advantages are that the database is fully searchable and, as the name suggests, it’s free of charge.

If you know the district in which the event took place, or have an idea of the general area, the following site may be useful to you. UK BMD has numerous links to sites that offer online transcriptions of the local indexes.

Birth Certificates
A full birth certificate (the modern short certificate is of very little use) contains the following information:

• Date and place of birth. (Time of birth generally indicates a multiple birth, though this isn't true for all multiple births and if one child had been stillborn, the time of birth for the other would not have been entered. At the other end of the scale, in the early years of registration there are instances of the time being entered for all births by an over zealous registrar.)
• Name, if any. (Male or female was entered if a name hadn’t been chosen)
• Name and occupation of father. (This was usually left blank if the child was illegitimate)
• Name and maiden name of mother (eg. Mary Smith formerly Jones. In cases where the mother had been previously married, her former married name(s) should also be entered, eg. Mary Black, late Smith, formerly Jones)
  
  NB‘Deceased’ should be noted for either parent, if relevant, but this was sometimes omitted
• Signature, description and residence of informant. (This was usually one of the parents, but may have been another family member, a friend or neighbour, or any one of a number of officials heading institutions such as a workhouse, hospital, asylum, orphanage or prison)
• Date of registration
• Signature of the registrar
• Name entered after registration (for children registered under male/female or for a change of name after registration)

Marriage Certificates
A marriage certificate shows the following information:

• Date and place of marriage
• Names, marital status, occupations and residences for the bride and groom
• Fathers’ names and occupations (Deceased should be added for father, if relevant, but this was sometimes omitted. If the father was unknown this column would normally be left blank or struck through, but the mother’s name might be entered instead.)
• Signatures of the groom, bride and witnesses - or the names and marks of anyone illiterate. (Many witnesses were close family, especially brothers and sisters)
• Signature of the clergy, registrar or other authorised person

Death Certificates
Death certificates show the following information:

• Date and place of death
• Name and sex of the deceased
• Age of the deceased, 1837 to March 1969, or date and place of birth of the deceased from April 1969. (The age entered can be incorrect by quite a few years depending on the informant's knowledge of the deceased. For some it would have been pure guesswork.)
• Maiden name of a woman who has married, from April 1969
• Occupation of the deceased, 1837 to March 1969, and occupation and usual address of the deceased, from April 1969 (For women with no occupation, the name and occupation of her husband/late husband is sometimes given)
• Signature, name, usual address and qualification (ie relationship to the deceased or status) of the informant. (The informant was usually a family member and often resided at the same address. In other cases the informant might be a friend, neighbour or any one of a number of officials heading institutions such as a workhouse, hospital, asylum, orphanage or prison)
• Cause of death (Often inaccurate, especially throughout the 19th century). Cause of death was not a legal requirement until 1874, when a doctor's certificate was needed for the issue of a death certificate.
• Date of registration & Registrar's signature

Obtaining certificates.
Certificates can be ordered in person from the General Register Office at the Family Records Centre in London; by post, phone or online from the Office of National Statistics (ONS); in person or by post from the local district office where registration took place (some also take orders by credit card over the phone); or from one of numerous genealogical services who advertise on the internet and in family history magazines.
The cost is currently £7 per certificate, with the full reference taken from the index, or £11 without the reference. The ONS provide a checking system, whereby they will check the entry against any other information you provide them, and if the certificate you order doesn’t match the additional information provided, they will not issue a certificate. A minimum charge of £3 is deducted from the initial payment and the remainder is refunded. Local district offices will refund the full amount.

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CAROLE STEELE

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