English and Welsh civil registration records are records which have been produced in England and Wales since civil registration began in 1837. Prior to the late eighteenth century, when France became the first major country to introduce such a system of civil registration, the governments of European states did not record the birth, marriage and death of citizens. Information of this was kind was instead usually gathered by the local church instead. The process of the state gathering such information in England and Wales, by issuing birth certs, recording marriages and divorces, and taking note of when people died, only began on the 1st of July 1837 after the passage of the Births and Deaths Registrations Act of 1836. It consequently coincided almost exactly with the beginning of the long reign of Queen Victoria, who assumed the throne just eleven days before civil registration commenced. The system was updated in 1875 to refine it. Civil registration is one of the bedrocks of genealogical research, whether it be in England, Wales or any other country. Because of its introduction in 1837, someone investigating the details of an ancestor from the late 1830s onwards can generally find out when they were born and where, who their parents were, who they married, if the marriage lasted or if they divorced at some point, as well as when they died and if they had surviving children when they passed away.[1]
History of English and Welsh civil registration
There was a great many reasons which coalesced in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries to convince European governments that they needed a new system through which they could keep a record of citizens living in their country.
Firstly, there was a growing secularism in many countries. For centuries records of births, marriages and deaths had been kept by the local church authorities, but the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century led many to question whether the state might be better placed to record this kind of information.
Secondly, massive changes in society were underway that required a different form of demographic record-keeping. Prior to the nineteenth century the vast majority of people in countries like England, France and Germany lived in the countryside. Local magistrates and ecclesiastical figures generally knew who everyone was a in a village or small community. This level of familiarity made it more possible to regulate crime, impose taxation and provide services like poor relief without an elaborate system of record-keeping. In larger urban centers there were already some forms of municipal record-keeping and management, but these were kept by individual corporations within cities and towns, not by national governments. As a huge flight of people from the countryside into the new industrial towns and cities commenced in the late eighteenth century, this form of rural familiarity declined dramatically.[2]
Finally, a system of national registration of citizens was needed as the power of the state grew. It is easier to tax people and to regulate their conduct if you know who they are and where they live. This was not all Orwellian oversight. It is also easier to provide people with welfare or investigate a crime on their behalf if they are registered with the government. Thus was born the concept of civil registration.[3]
In the case of England and Wales, a decision was gradually made in the 1830s that with the decline in the upkeep of parish registers through the established Anglican Church of England, a government system of civil registration was needed. Parliament passed the Births and Deaths Registrations Act in 1836 and from the 1st of July 1837 it was legally required for everyone to record the birth of a child to the government, as well as when they got married, while family members or some next of kin also had to record the death of individuals. This was a controversial enough development at the time and there was some passive resistance offered to it and in some cases even riots and other forms of civil disturbance.[4]
There were also a number of amendments which were made over the next century. Legislation in 1874, for instance, made it mandatory for a doctor or some other local official to inform the state of the death of a patient in order to ensure that people who might not have a next of kin to otherwise do so were actually recorded as having died. Civil registration did not begin in the other constituent parts of the United Kingdom, Scotland and Ireland, until 1855 in the Scottish case[5] and not largely until 1864 in Ireland.[6]
Where to find English and Welsh civil registration records
The commencement of civil registration in England and Wales also saw the establishment of the General Register Office (GRO) in 1837. This has become the archival repository for birth, marriage, divorce and death records in England and Wales. Today their office is in Southport north of Liverpool, not far from the border between England and Wales, though the original GRO was at Somerset House in London prior to 1974.[7] The move out of London commenced during the Second World War when over a century of civil registration records were removed from the capital to avoid their destruction during the German Blitz of the city. Copies of civil records can be obtained from the GRO online or by post.[8] Hundreds of millions of these birth, marriage and death records for England and Wales since 1837 are available through MyHeritage.
What can be found in English and Welsh civil registration records
Civil registration records are a treasure trove for genealogists and family historians. They will provide details on almost anyone born in England and Wales since 1837, or indeed those born before 1837 that were married or died from 1837 onwards. These records will not just provide vital statistics such as dates of birth, place of birth, date of marriage, partner, and date and place of death. They will also often contain additional information on a person’s parents, godparents, address at the time of marriage, occupation, age at time of death, and much more besides. The level of detail can vary depending on the time period in which the civil records were produced. Regardless of whether the record was produced in 1837, the year 2000, or any time in between, these are fundamental records when it comes to investigating the life story of an ancestor or ancestors in England and Wales in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.[9]
See also
Explore more about civil registration in England and Wales
- England & Wales, Birth Index, 1837-2005 records collection on MyHeritage
- England & Wales, Marriage Index, 1837-2005 records collection on MyHeritage
- England & Wales, Death Index, 1837-2005 records collection on MyHeritage
- Unlocking English & Welsh Civil Registration Records at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
References
- ↑ https://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/early-civil-registration/
- ↑ https://www.history.com/news/industrial-revolution-cities
- ↑ Douglas Hay, ‘Crime and Justice in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century England’, in Crime and Justice, Vol. 2 (1980), pp. 45–84.
- ↑ https://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/early-civil-registration/
- ↑ https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/guides/birth-death-and-marriage-records
- ↑ https://www.nationalarchives.ie/article/records-birth-marriage-death/
- ↑ https://www.gov.uk/government/news/the-general-register-office-celebrates-175-years-of-civil-registration
- ↑ https://www.gov.uk/general-register-office
- ↑ https://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/introduction-to-birth-marriages-and-death-registers-in-england-and-wales/