Hindsight by Richard Stoker

Can a person really see
Back into his ancestry?
Searching back in time he may
Find qualities to point the way;
Looking in himself he can
Learn to be that complete man.

Our editor writes:
State registration of births, marriages and deaths began in England and Wales on 1 July 1837. They have separate indices within the General Register Office Index (see the Third Step in my article, "First Steps for Family History Beginners"). Each year is separated into quarters known as March, June, September and December. Entries are alphabetical by surname. You will also see volume and page numbers. The volume number relates to regions but these areas frequently overlap counties. From 1837 to 1851 they are given Roman numerals but after 1852, Arabic numerals and letters are given to identify a slightly smaller number of re-classified regions.

We should never forget that compliance with state registration took time although there was stricter enforcement from 1875. Before that date there may be as many as 10% of births not registered. Birth certificates give you birthplace, name, sex, father's name (not always!), mother's name and maiden name, father's occupation, information about the informant and registrar. Marriage certificates give you date and place; names, ages and occupations of the couple, residences at the time and names and occupations of the fathers, and the names of witnesses. Early certificates often only reflected whether the parties had reached 21 years or not. Death certificates give date and place of death. Ages can be inaccurate i.e. estimated. You may be calculating ages from census entries.

These vary in accuracy but its useful to know when the census was taken. See the dates at the bottom of this page.

Internet Searching

While many County Archives have indices,the full set is available for public viewing at the Family Records Centre at Myddelton Street in London.

FreeBMD is a free search site but its records do not claim to be complete.

1837Online is also a useful search site with excellent coverage. This is a pay to view site.

Getting Hold of Those Certificates

As well as going to the family Record Centre (or by telephone) you can apply on line here.

There is much to be said for applying to the appropriate local superintendent registrars but you need to have identified your district first and have some approximate details to hand. The volume and page numbers from the main indices you can find as above are not helpful to local registrars. You can find the registration districts for your areas which applied between 1837 and 1930 from this Genuki site.

For Scottish registration research do try Scotland's People, the official government site.

For Irish certificate research try Genfindit or this look up service.

Scottish registration dates from1855, Irish registration began in 1864 although Protestant marriages were registered from 1845.

Census Days

NB. 1841 ages are usually rounded up to the nearest 5 or 10.