What Is Civil Registration In The UK?

Civil registration is the system in England and Wales by which every birth, marriage and death is officially registered and recorded.

Civil registration began in Victorian times, on July 1 1837. From that time, births, marriages and deaths have been recorded by a non-Church based certificate, one copy of which is given to the person or relative of the person involved.

The system was administered by the General Registration Office in London but with regional registrars in major towns and cities. In 1837, the country was originally divided into 619 registration districts but reorganisation in 1851 added four more districts, making 623 in total.

One copy of the birth certificate is given to a child's parents and the other copy is held by the local registrar. Every three months, registrars copy the certificate and send the copy to the GRO in London. The GRO and the local registrar maintain and index of all births. It is similar with marriages and deaths.

The indexes to birth, marriage and death certificates is now available online at www.1837online.com
and the system is of enormous value to people tracing their family tree.

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