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Civil registration of Births, Marriages & Deaths began in England and Wales on July 1 1837. In Scotland it began on January 1 1855 and in Ireland on January 1 1864. Before those dates the only records of these events were religious ones in parish registers. Thus, it is pointless to ask how to obtain birth certificates before these dates. The answer is - there weren't any. Churches did not issue birth certificates and the only record was a baptismal entry - NOTE baptism, not birth - in the parish registers. I will confine myself here to civil registration in England and Wales, since Scotland and Ireland do not concern a Yorkshire list (and the information for those countries can be found elsewhere). The master indexes of all births, marriages and deaths since July 1837 are kept at the Family Records Centre in Myddelton St, Islington, London. They are in large bound volumes, arranged yearly by quarters. You look up the event you require in the indexes, then fill in a form and apply for the certificate (UK pounds 6.50 the last time I went). However, few people can get to the FRC in London, so copies of the indexes are available on microform (fiche or film) at major public libraries, some Record Offices, the Society of Genealogists' library (also in London) and at many Mormon Family History Centres. I will not attempt to list here the type of information available on the certificates (it would take too long) but would make a few important points... 1) Many people are surprised when they cannot find an ancestor in the indexes, especially between 1837 and 1875. This is because registration of an event was not actually made compulsory until 1875 (i.e. people could be fined after that date for not registering a birth) and in the early years it has been estimated that in some areas as many as 20% of births were not registered. 2) You can also obtain certificates by writing to the appropriate Register Office if you know the registration district in which an event took place. I have never had to do this (since I am fortunate in living near London) but from experiences I have heard from others I believe you should be prepared for a variety of differing responses. Not all local Register Offices welcome enquiries, I gather, since it takes up the time of their staff who have other things to do in registering present-day events. You may be charged heavily or simply told your enquiry can't be dealt with. You are better off finding an event in the indexes at your nearest LDS FHC and applying to the General Register Office at Southport, which handles postal enquiries. See <www.ons.gov.uk/regist_f.htm> for details. The address is : General Register Office <certificate.services@ons.gov.uk> 3) Even original birth, marriage and death certificates are not always accurate, although they are primary sources!!! This may come as a shock to some, but our ancestors often lied to the Registrar. Usually, this was to conceal the fact that a marriage was bigamous or that one party was a lot older than the other and had lied to their partner about his/her age. Be particularly careful of given ages on death certificates where the person concerned was born before 1837, since often people (and their relatives) in those days had only a vague idea of when they were born and, thus, how old they were. CENSUS RETURNS have taken place every 10 years since 1801. However, the earliest ones from 1801 to 1831 were for statistical reasons only and in the vast majority of cases no names were recorded, therefore they are of little value to family historians. However, in a very few places the enumerator was particularly conscientious and recorded names as well (usually only heads of households but very occasionally all members of the household) and some of these rare returns of 1801-1831 have survived in Record Offices. Their whereabouts are detailed in a booklet "Local Census Listings 1522-1930 by Jeremy Gibson and Mervyn Medlycott, available from the Society of Genealogists' bookshop. The earliest census to give names (apart from the rare exceptions mentioned above) was that of 1841. This is also the one of least use to us, since the relationship of each member to the head of the household is not given and in most areas the ages of adults over 15 were rounded down to the nearest lower multiple of 5. This often confuses newbies, since a person aged 34 could be shown as 30 and this will not add up when compared against given ages on birth/marriage certificates or in subsequent censuses. Also in 1841, the place of birth is not given, the only reference being a question whether the person was born in the county of present residence or not, the only answer being "Yes" or "No" (not a lot of help!). From 1851 onwards more detailed information is given, including relationships, supposedly accurate ages and actual birth places. However, again, please take great care since this information was often inaccurate. People lied about their ages (sometimes because they had lied to their partners about it) or occupations (sometimes to enhance their social status) and sometimes genuinely didn't know how old they were or where they were born. Often they gave as their birthplace the first place they could remember living in, whereas they may have been born somewhere else altogether. Or they may give a village as a birthplace in one census and the nearest town in another. All census from 1841 to 1891 are searchable on films, the main collection being at the FRC (as above in civil registration) but copies are widely held in other Record Offices (usually just the returns for the particular area) and at LDS FHCs. The only UK census which has been completely indexed by surname nationally is the 1881. I am sure I do not have to mention the now famous 1881 CDs. Other censuses have NOT been indexed by surname except on a regional basis by local family history societies. The most widely surname-indexed census apart from 1881 is the 1851. Other censuses have been indexed only on a very spasmodic basis. To know the full details of which area has been surname indexed you need another booklet called "Marriage and Census Indexes for Family Historians" by Jeremy Gibson and Elizabeth Hampson (again, available from the SoG bookshop). Finally, a special note to newbies - PLEASE, PLEASE do not ask the list to do lookups "in the 1861 census for my gt-gt-grandfather Fred Bloggs, believed to have been born somewhere in Yorkshire." Requests like these are utterly impossible to comply with, so do not be offended if you don't get any responses! Indeed, lookup requests for all the censuses except 1881 are
normally only acceptable if you know an address, unless a member of the list has access to a surname index for the particular area. "Never ask a man if he comes from Yorkshire. If he does he will tell you. If he does not, why humiliate him?" - Canon Sydney Smith (scholar and humorist 1771-1845) |
