Civil records
Civil records consist of any record that was kept as an official requirement of the Government. The list of all records that are available under this heading would be huge and require far too much space for our web site. For this reason we have limited ourselves for now to the main two aspects of Civil Records: The division of the Country into reference sections (Counties and Registration Districts) and the most popular source of data on an individual since its beginnings in July 1837, the General Register Office records of Births, Marriages and Deaths.
Map Of Restructured Counties
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An interactive map showing England, Wales and Scotland Counties both pre and post 1974 restructuring. This map can be used to assist researchers using the GRO (General Register Office) registration reference in the indices of Births, Marriages and Deaths.
English Civil Registration List
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The Civil Registration list used in St. Catherine's for England.
Scottish Regional Counties List
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Regional Counties list for Scotland.
GRO Birth Certification
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This certificate shows the date of birth and the entry number used in the registrar's Register Book. This example is for Gladys Wilkinson who was born on the 4th November 1898. Note how this slip has no details of the parents, and only shows a sub district, there is no mention of a place of birth.
Short Issue Birth Certificate
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This certificate shows the details of the child , the date of birth, the place of birth by registration district and sub-district and the register details giving register number and entry number. Yet again though, no details of parents are given on this short certificate.
Full Birth Certificate
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The last birth certificate example is a full certificate. You can see that this certificate shows all the possible data that could be entered in relation to the child: the date of birth, the place of birth, the child's name, the child's sex, the father's details, the mother's details (including maiden surname), the occupation of the father, signature description and residence of informant, when registered, signature of registrar and any names entered after registration. The certificates also include full details of the Registration District, the Sub-district and the County of Birth. We have quoted here that "this certificate shows all the possible data that could be entered in relation to the child" this is only relevant if the child is from a married couple, an unmarried mother would need to take the father of the child along at the time of registration if his details were to be included.
Marriage Certification
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Since 1837 marriage certificates have shown the details of: The place the marriage was performed and in which district and county, the date of the marriage, Names and Surnames of the bride and groom, the ages of the bride and groom, the condition of both people and their rank / profession, residence at time of ceremony, the father's names and surnames together with their rank / profession. The certificates were signed / marked by the couple and required two witnesses. The number (ie 118) is the reference to the entry in the original register.
Many registrars will, if asked (though not required to), try to copy the original entry when you apply for a copy if you point out that it is for genealogical purposes. If they do not offer the copying facility then you will get either a hand written copy or a typed copy. The featured example is of an original copied onto a modern certificate.
Death Certification
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Death certificates are a certificate that should be considered very carefully for the following reasons. The person who gives the details to the registrar for the certificate may not be a direct relation to the person on the certificate. They may be giving information that is third hand, often from the memory of an elderly person. The details of age are often found from other documents, ie a marriage certificate and we know it was common for people to lie about their age on marriage certificates. In all cases it is worth trying to follow up any individual who appears in the "Signature, description, and residence of informant" section.
GRO Index (commonly known as St. Catherine's Index)
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A part page example of Births from the GRO indices that are available for all English Births, Marriages and Deaths post July 1837.
The birth index shows the SURNAME of Parent - NAME if any or sex of child - THE REGISTRARS District - VOLUME (VOL) and PAGE. These latter two are references that are only relevant to the GRO and the filing system they use for the storage of the Registers, they are not relevant to any application you may make to a Local Register Office.
This particular example highlights an entry for Elizabeth Graham born on the 22nd February 1839 at Longtown in Cumberland GRAHAM - ELIZABETH - LONGTOWN, XXV 130. For those not quite convinced that this is what is shown in the example we assure you that this is a fairly common example of the quality of the material you will have to look through when you start your own research. We should also point out that many early pages are a lot harder to read, often having only partially visible sections of ink. The example used is also a fair representation of extracts from the three registers, Births, Marriages and Deaths.
Thankfully all registers eventually become typed lists, but even some of the early typed versions can still be very hard to read.
If you have ever used a professional researcher and they have told you that they are having difficulty working with the index, you now know what they are up against. Remember this is a fairly good example.