General Register Office for Scotland
The General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) (
On 1 April 2011 it was merged with the National Archives of Scotland to form National Records of Scotland.[3] All the former department's functions continue as part of the new body.
History
Initially
The Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Scotland) Act 1854 created the General Register Office of Births, Deaths and Marriages, headed by the Registrar General with the appointment of registrars in every parish. It also provided that the Registrar General should produce an annual report to be forwarded to the Home Secretary to be laid before Parliament, containing a general abstract of the numbers of births, deaths and marriages registered during the previous year. The first general abstract (relating to 1855) was submitted in 1856.
The parochial and burgh divisions in Scotland were adopted as the basis of registration, and the
In 1855 and 1860, two Acts, the Registration (Scotland) Act, 1855 (18 & 19 Vict., c.29) and the Registration (Scotland, Amendment) Act, 1860 (23 & 24 Vict., c.85), were passed which amended some of the sections of the 1854 Act. The original Act had placed considerable burdens on the sheriffs of the Scottish counties, who had already played a role in the taking of decennial censuses. The amending Acts reduced their responsibilities by appointing registration district examiners to inspect the registers. They also made revised provision for the transmission of the parochial registers up to the year 1820 to the General Register Office Scotland (GROS), and the registers for the years 1820–1855 to the custody of the local registrars. These registers were to be retained by the registrars for 30 years, after which they were to be sent to the GROS.[4]
On 1 April 2011 GROS was merged with the National Archives of Scotland, with which it already had close ties and shared management of the Scotland's People Centre in Princes Street, Edinburgh, to form National Records of Scotland.
Superintendent of Statistics
From 1855 the role of accumulating and publishing statistics from data has fallen to one person. These people were:
- James Stark from 1855 to 1870
- William Robertson from 1871 to 1878
- Robert James Blair Cunynghame from 1879 to 1901
- James Craufurd Dunlop from 1902 to 1929
- Peter Laird McKinlay from 1930 to 1960
Registrars General for Scotland
The Registrar General was also Deputy to the Lord Clerk Register. The Deputy Clerk Register had to be an Advocate of not less than ten years standing.
William Pitt Dundas was the first holder of the combined post of Deputy Clerk Register and Registrar General from September 1854 until April 1880. His successor, Roger Montgomerie, died six months after his appointment, and Mr Pitt Dundas resumed office for around a year, until the appointment of Sir Stair Agnew KCB. The last person to hold the combined posts was Sir James Patten McDougall KCB, in office from May 1909 to March 1919.
Originally, this was the supervision of birth, death and marriage registration. It was expanded to include the conduct of the 1861 Census and all subsequent ones (working closely with the Registrar General to ensure consistency) and other statistical functions.
In 1920 the Registrar General (Scotland) Act 1920 was passed which provided for the appointment by the Secretary of State for Scotland a whole-time Registrar General, Dr James Craufurd Dunlop, (previously Medical Superintendent of Statistics) was appointed.
On the formation of National Records of Scotland, the positions of Registrar General and
List of Registrars General for Scotland
- William Pitt Dundas, 12 September 1854 – 28 April 1880
- Roger Montgomerie, 19 April 1880 – 25 October 1880
- William Pitt Dundas, C.B., 17 November 1880 – 12 January 1881
- K.C.B., 13 January 1881 – 30 April 1909
- Sir James Patten McDougall, K.C.B., 1 May 1909[6]– 7 March 1919
- Dr.James Craufurd Dunlop, 1 January 1921 – 2 September 1930
- Andrew Froude, I.S.O., 3 September 1930 – 14 February 1937
- FRSE, 1 September 1937 – 30 November 1948
- Edmund Albert Hogan, C.B.E., 1 December 1948 – 31 May 1959
- Alexander Burt TaylorCBE D Litt, 1 June 1959 – 4 September 1966
- James Allan Ford CB MC, September 1966 - September 1969
- Archibald L Rennie, October 1969 - 11 June 1973
- William Baird, 12 June 1973 – 3 August 1978
- Victor Colvin Stewart, 4 August 1978 – 12 April 1982
- Dr Charles Milne Glennie CBE, 13 April 1982 – 31 October 1994
- James Meldrum, 1 November 1994 – 21 February 1999
- John Randall, 22 February 1999 – 1 August 2003
- Duncan Macniven, 4 August 2003 – 5 August 2011
- George MacKenzie, 8 August 2011 – 28 September 2012
- Audrey Robertson, 29 September 2012 - 3 February 2013
- Tim Ellis, 4 February 2013 - April 2018
- Anne Slater (Interim), April 2018 - 16 December 2018
- Paul Lowe, 17 December 2018 – 14 Feb 2023
- Janet Egdell, 15 Feb 2023 - present
New Register House
Other buildings
GROS had two other main buildings: Ladywell House, in the Corstorphine area of Edinburgh, where population, household and vital statistics data (including Scotland's census) are housed; and Cairnsmore House on the Crichton Estate in Dumfries, home of Scotland's NHS Central Register.[7] All three buildings are now part of the National Records of Scotland estate.
See also
- Demographics of Scotland
- General Register Office for England and Wales
- General Register Office (Northern Ireland)
- General Register Office
- Genealogy
- National Archives of Scotland
- Office for National Statistics
- Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Scotland) Act 1965
References
- ^ About Us Archived 8 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine gro-scotland.gov.uk, accessed 10 October 2008
- ^ NHS Central Register (NHSCR) Archived 15 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine gro-scotland.gov.uk, accessed 10 October 2008
- ^ National Records of Scotland Archived 19 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine Scottish Government news release, accessed 18 April 2011
- ^ a b Higgs, Edward, The development of the General Register Office (Scotland) Retrieved 26 March 2016
- ^ About Us Archived 25 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine gro-scotland.gov.uk, accessed 13 August 2011
- ^ "No. 12139". The Edinburgh Gazette. 4 May 1909. p. 485.
- ^ Where to Find Us Archived 11 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine gro-scotland.gov.uk, accessed 13 August 2011
External links
- October 2014 archive of website
- Scotlands People - A genealogical research site administered by the GRO for Scotland