General Register Office for England and Wales
Act of Parliament | |
The General Register Office for England and Wales (GRO) is the section of the United Kingdom
The GRO was founded in 1836 by the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1836, and civil registration commenced in 1837. Its head is the Registrar General. Probably the most distinguished person associated with the GRO in the 19th century, although he was never its head, was William Farr.
The GRO supplies copies of birth, marriage,
History of the GRO
Establishment
Prior to the creation of the General Register Office (GRO) in 1837, there was no national system of civil registration in England and Wales. Baptisms, marriages and burials were recorded in
The increasingly poor state of English parish registration led to numerous attempts to shore up the system in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The
Eventually, increasing concern that the poor registration of baptisms, marriages and burials undermined property rights by making it difficult to establish lines of descent, coupled with the complaints of Nonconformists, led to the establishment in 1833 of a parliamentary
The answer was the establishment of a civil registration system. It was hoped that improved registration of vital events would protect property rights through the more accurate recording of lines of descent. Civil registration would also remove the need for Nonconformists to rely upon the Church of England for registration, and provide medical data for research.[2] As a result, in 1836, legislation was passed that ordered the civil registration of births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales. This took effect from 1 July 1837. A General Register Office was set up in London and the office of Registrar General was established.
England and Wales were divided into 619 registration districts (623 from 1851), each under the supervision of a superintendent registrar. The districts were based on the recently introduced poor law unions. The registration districts were further divided into sub-districts (there could be two or more), each under the charge of registrars who were appointed locally.
Early history
Although the GRO was not specifically established to undertake statistical research, the early Registrars General, Thomas Henry Lister (1836–42) and George Graham (1842–79), built up a Statistical Department to compile medical, public health and actuarial statistics. Much of this work was undertaken in the early to mid-Victorian period by William Farr, the GRO's Superintendent of Statistics. Under these men the Annual reports of the Registrar General became a vehicle for administrative and social reform. In 1840 the GRO also took over responsibility for the decennial census of England and Wales.[2]
In 1871, the GRO came under the supervision of the Local Government Board. During the First World War the GRO was responsible for co-ordinating National Registration, which underpinned recruitment to the armed forces, the movement of workers into the munitions industries, and rationing. National Registration was not, however, continued after the war and the GRO was absorbed into the Ministry of Health in 1919.[2]
Departmental responsibility
In 1970 the GRO became part of the newly created Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (OPCS), with the Registrar General in overall charge. Until then it had had several statistical functions, including the conduct of population censuses and the production of annual population estimates; all these were moved elsewhere within the new organisation. The GRO then became a division within OPCS, headed by a Deputy Registrar General. Then in 1996 the OPCS, and therefore the GRO, became part of the newly created Office for National Statistics, and the office of Registrar General was merged with that of Head of the Government Statistical Service.
Becoming part of the Home Office
On 1 April 2008, the General Register Office for England and Wales (GRO) became a subsidiary of the
In 2013, IPS was renamed HM Passport Office, while remaining an agency of the Home Office.
Location
From its beginnings in 1836, the General Register Office was based within the North Wing of
The GRO is now located at
The GRO registration process
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Births
In the early days of the system, it was up to each local registrar to find out what births had taken place in his sub-district, often employing help to do so.
Until 1926, there were no registrations at all of
Marriages
Clergy of the established Church of England are registrars for marriage. In each parish church two identical registers of marriages are kept and when they are complete, one is sent to the superintendent registrar. In the meantime, every three months it is required that a return certified by a clergy person detailing the marriages that had taken place, or else that no marriages had taken place, in the preceding three months, be submitted directly to the superintendent registrar.
The
Deaths
A death was to be registered by someone who had been present at the death or during the final illness. If that was not possible, it could be registered by the owner of the building where the person died, or if the dead person was the owner, by some other occupier of the building. There were more complicated arrangements for eventualities such as unidentified bodies being found, and cases where there was a coroner's inquest. A death was supposed to be registered within eight days.[7]
Since there was not necessarily a unique person clearly responsible for registering a death, in order to make sure deaths were registered, clergymen were made responsible for checking the death certificate before performing any funeral or burial service. However, they were given some leeway in case the death had not yet been registered, and could go ahead with the service provided they notified the registrar themselves within seven days. If they failed to do so they were liable for a £10 fine.[8] This was inadequate to guarantee all deaths were registered, since in principle a body could be buried without a religious service, and those who had not been baptised (mostly young children) did not qualify for Christian burial.
Between 1858 and 1874, a certificate should state whether the death had been certified by a doctor or not. From 1875 the cause of death had to be certified by a doctor before the certificate could be issued. A death would normally be registered in the district in which it occurred. Once a death had been registered, the registrar would normally issue a Certificate for Burial or Cremation, unless the death were being investigated by the coroner or there were an inquest.
The
A different registration system operates in other parts of the United Kingdom.
The GRO indexes
Every three months, at the end of March, June, September and December, the superintendent registrars send a copy of each entry of birth, marriage and death registered by their office in that quarter, to the Registrar General in London. From these returns the General Register Office produces indexes to its records, which are open to public inspection, and the indexes can be used to order birth, marriage and death certificates.
With the exception of some extra details recorded on death certificates since 1969, the information given on certificates of birth, marriage and death has not changed since 1837, but the amount of information given in the index volumes has increased from time to time. Until 1983, the copies received by the Registrar General were bound into volumes, and three separate alphabetical indexes were prepared on a quarterly basis. The number of volumes depends on the number of people registered in each quarter. Thus there might be 10 volumes for some quarters: Vol.1 A-B, Vol.2 C-D, Vol.3 E-G and so on. From their inception, the alphabetical indexes give the surname, the forenames if registered, the registration district and the volume and the page on which the entry may be found. These details enable the appropriate record to be located. Before 1866, the indexes were written by hand on heavy parchment, though some have been replaced by printed copies. From 1984, the indexes are in annual instead of quarterly volumes. The indexes from 1984 give the month of registration as the first and second digits in the document reference number, and the next two digits give the year. Thus the reference number 0485 9 2128 refers to an event registered in April 1985. From 1860 the GRO death index specifies an age of death and from 1911 the birth index also specifies the maiden name of a child's mother.
The GRO indexes are a major tool for persons tracing their family history, as well as those needing duplicate copies of their own birth or marriage certificates. The indexes can be viewed on microfiche at the
Other parts of the United Kingdom have their own indexing system.
Other registers and indexes
In addition to the registers already mentioned, the GRO has charge of a number of other records in its Overseas Section. These indexes can be searched online at pay-per-view family history websites and at the National Archives. They generally contain similar information to the main GRO indexes and registers. The Regimental Registers, Chaplains' Returns, Consular Returns, Army Births, Marriages and Deaths and the War Deaths are some of the most significant. The civil registration records that pertain to British people in India and countries in the Far East, formerly part of the British Empire, are found in the Oriental and India Office Collections of the British Library.
GRO certificates and their content
Using the information obtained from the GRO Index it is possible to obtain a certificate online from the certificate ordering service. The GRO currently charge £11 for each certificate of birth, marriage or death, although a more expensive premium service is available for those who need copies of documents quickly. GRO certificates are used as a source by family historians to trace ancestry as well as being used for official purposes like applying for a passport.
Birth certificates issued by the GRO are printed on a red form and contain the following information:
- the registration district and sub-district;
- the entry number;
- the name of the child (if already bestowed);
- the date and place of birth;
- the sex;
- the name of the father;
- the name and maiden name of the mother;
- and the profession or occupation of the father;
- the name, address and position of the informant (e.g. mother)
- the date of registration and the name of the registrar
- a name given after registration e.g. if they were given a different name after baptism if within 12 months of the birth being registered.
Marriage certificates issued by the GRO are printed on a green form and give the following information:
- the date and place of solemnisation of the marriage;
- the names, addresses and condition (formerly bachelor or widower, now single, previous marriage dissolved etc) of both parties to the marriage;
- the rank or profession of both their parents (since May 2021, previously just fathers;
- the name of at least two witnesses and the officiating minister or registrar;
- whether the marriage was by banns, licence or registrar's certificate.
Death certificates issues by the GRO are printed on a black and purple form and give the following information:
- the registration district and sub-district
- the entry number;
- name of the deceased, their supposed age at death and occupation
- the cause of death
- date and place of death
- the informant and their relationship to the deceased
- the name of the registrar;
- from 1969 death certificates also record the date and place of birth of the deceased and, if applicable, the maiden name of a woman.
Certificates issued in other parts of the United Kingdom contain different or additional information and have a different format.
Certificates issued by the GRO clearly state that they are certified copies of the register entries, that they are not evidence of a person's identity, and that there are criminal offences relating the unlawful amendment or falsification of a certificate, or using or possessing a false certificate. Certificates contain the seal of the General Register Office and show an abridged version of the Royal Coat of Arms.
Digitisation and Indexing (D&I) Project
A project, called DoVE (Digitisation of Vital Events), to digitise the GRO's records of
The records that have been digitised – over 130 million of them – form part of a system (called EAGLE, for "Electronic Access to GRO Legacy Events") which is used within the GRO to fulfil requests for certificates from the general public. A different system, known as MAGPIE ("MultiAccess to GRO Public Index of Events"), was intended to make the indexes available to the public via a website, but this will not now be implemented. Instead, following a lengthy review of options, a new project, called the Digitisation and Indexing (D&I) Project, was initiated.
The D&I Project was planned to: complete the digitisation of birth, marriage and death records; create an online index to those records; and improve the certificate ordering process.
Registrars General
- Thomas Henry Lister, 1836–1842[14][15]
- George Graham, 1842–1880[14][16]
- Brydges Powell Henniker, 1880–1900[14][17]
- Reginald MacLeod, 1900–1902[14][18]
- William Cospatrick Dunbar, 1902–1909[14][19]
- Bernard Mallet, 1909–1920[14][20]
- Sylvanus Percival Vivian, 1920–1945[14][21]
- George Cecil North, 1945–1958[22]
- Edward Michael Tyndall Firth, 1958–1963[23]
- Michael Reed, 1963–1974[24]
- George Paine, 1974–1978[25]
- Arthur Roger Thatcher, 1978–1986[26]
- Gillian Theresa Banks, 1986–1990[27]
- Peter John Wormald, 1990–1996[28]
- David "Tim" Holt, 1996–2000[29]
- Isobel Mary Macdonald-Davies, 2000[30]
- Leonard Warren Cook, 2000–2005[31]
- Karen Hope Dunnell, 2005–2008[32]
- James Douglas Ellis Hall, 2008–2010[33]
- Sarah Oonagh Rapson, 2010–2014[34]
- Paul William Pugh, 2014–2015[35]
- Mark Thomson, 2015–2020[36] (also Director General of HM Passport Office, and on the executive management board of the Home Office)[37]
- Myrtle Lloyd, 2020 – present[38][39]
See also
- General Register Office
- General Register Office for Northern Ireland
- General Register Office for Scotland
- HM Land Registry
Notes and references
- ^ Higgs, E. Registration before civil registration at http://www.histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/View?path=Browse/Essays%20%28by%20kind%29&active=yes&mno=2088 Retrieved 18 August 2013
- ^ a b c Higgs, E. The early development of the General Register Office at http://www.histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/View?path=Browse/Essays%20%28by%20kind%29&active=yes&mno=2002 Retrieved 18 August 2013
- ^ "History: Somerset House". www.somersethouse.org.uk. Retrieved 17 August 2013.[title missing]
- ^ "Doors open to 175 years of history". gov.uk. 10 September 2012. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
- ^ "Patient records held at Southport's Smedley Hydro taken on by NHS". Southport Visiter. 22 April 2008. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7509-4198-3
- ^ An Act for registering Births, Deaths, and Marriages in England, section XXV http://www.histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/View?path=Browse/Legislation%20(by%20date)&active=yes&mno=4044
- ^ An Act for registering Births, Deaths, and Marriages in England, section XXVII http://www.histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/View?path=Browse/Legislation%20(by%20date)&active=yes&mno=4044
- ^ An Act to amend the Law relating to the Registration of Births and Deaths in England, and to consolidate the Law respecting the Registration of Births and Deaths at Sea. 7 August 1874. http://www.histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/View?path=Browse/Legislation%20(by%20date)/1874&active=yes&mno=4055
- ^ Fairbairn, Catherine (4 May 2010). "Digitisation of civil registration records" (PDF). London: House of Commons Library. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
- ^ "Modernising civil registration". London: Home Office. 2011. Archived from the original on 12 April 2011. Retrieved 9 August 2012.
- ^ "Modernising civil registration". London: Home Office. November 2011. Archived from the original on 8 April 2012. Retrieved 9 August 2012.
- ^ "Modernising civil registration". London: Identity and Passport Service. August 2012. Retrieved 27 March 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g "The Registrars General 1836–1945" (PDF). Census history. Newport: Office for National Statistics. 5 June 2001. Retrieved 20 May 2011.
- ^ "No. 19412". The London Gazette. 19 August 1836. p. 1481.
- ^ "No. 20112". The London Gazette. 21 June 1842. p. 1687.
- ^ "No. 24798". The London Gazette. 6 January 1880. p. 47.
- ^ "No. 27163". The London Gazette (Supplement). 9 February 1900. p. 908.
- ^ "No. 27465". The London Gazette. 15 August 1902. p. 5327.
- ^ "No. 28275". The London Gazette. 30 July 1909. p. 806.
- ^ "No. 32209". The London Gazette. 28 January 1921. p. 778.
- ^ "No. 37334". The London Gazette. 2 November 1945. p. 5350.
- ^ "No. 41382". The London Gazette (Supplement). 9 May 1958. p. 2904.
- ^ "No. 42932". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 March 1963. p. 1891.
- ^ "No. 46192". The London Gazette. 25 January 1974. p. 1055.
- ^ "No. 47519". The London Gazette. 24 April 1978. p. 4732.
- ^ "No. 50736". The London Gazette. 4 December 1986. p. 15657.
- ^ "No. 52098". The London Gazette. 4 April 1990. p. 7351.
- ^ "No. 54363". The London Gazette. 4 April 1996. p. 4925.
- ^ "No. 55813". The London Gazette. 7 April 2000. p. 3963.
- ^ "No. 55874". The London Gazette. 13 June 2000. p. 6423.
- ^ "No. 57748". The London Gazette. 6 September 2005. p. 11459.
- ^ "No. 58693". The London Gazette. 8 May 2008. p. 7009.
- ^ "No. 59607". The London Gazette. 17 November 2010. p. 22133.
- ^ "Paul Pugh". gov.uk. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
- ^ "No. 61335". The London Gazette. 27 August 2015. p. 15990.
- ^ Home Office and HM Passport Office (24 August 2015). "Mark Thomson appointed new Registrar General". gov.uk. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
- ^ "No. 62966". The London Gazette. 3 April 2020. p. 7042.
- ^ Home Office (8 April 2020). "Myrtle Lloyd appointed new Registrar General for England and Wales". gov.uk. Retrieved 8 April 2020.