RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => Topic started by: jane k on Saturday 15 March 25 16:04 GMT (UK)
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Obviously I know that since 1837 births, marriages and deaths were meant to be officially registered but I don`t know how this was actually done or how it was enforced.
I`m thinking in particularly about a couple of deaths from my family which happened in a village and the informant was someone who was unable to sign her name. Surely every village didn`t have a registrar? But if there wasn`t one near to the event it must have been easy not to bother!
I think there was a benefit to register babies to make them "official" and presumably marriages were overseen by a vicar. But why go to the trouble of registering a death if you could get away with not doing it?
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Think you needed confirmation from the Registrar before a burial was permitted?
Each Registration District had a Superintendent Registrar, and a number of Assistant Registrars.
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Failure to register a birth only became a fineable offence in 1874 so although children may have been baptised - their births were not always registered
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what was the name of the village?
Where was it?
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I`m thinking in particularly about a couple of deaths from my family which happened in a village and the informant was someone who was unable to sign her name. Surely every village didn`t have a registrar? But if there wasn`t one near to the event it must have been easy not to bother!
The Births, Deaths, and Marriages Act, 1836 (https://ukga.org/index.php?pageid=33382) which established the registration system initially gave the task of appointing the local registrars to the Poor Law Guardians for each District. If a district did not have a functioning Poor Law Union, then the task devolved onto the individual parishes which already had a system in place for administering the poor relief through the Vestry. You can read all the details in the Act itself, using the link above.
Don't forget that in the first half of the nineteenth century the population was far less mobile than after the railways appeared, and most people lived in the same community all of their lives, so occurrences like births, marriages and deaths were well known in that local community. Thus it would have been quite difficult to conceal such an event for long.
I think there was a benefit to register babies to make them "official" and presumably marriages were overseen by a vicar. But why go to the trouble of registering a death if you could get away with not doing it?
While the Act contained a major flaw in that it appeared to require the Registrar to find out about and record every birth, marriage and death ("... and every Registrar shall be authorized and is hereby required to inform himself carefully of every Birth and every Death which shall happen, within his District after the said Thirty-first day of December, and to learn and register as soon after the event as conveniently may be done, without fee or reward, save as hereinafter mentioned, in one of the said Books, the particulars required to be registered according to the Forms in the said Schedules (A.) and (B.) respectively, touching every such Birth or every such Death ... "), the onus was still on "... the Occupier of every house or tenement in England in which any Birth or Death shall happen, after the said Thirty-first day of December shall within Eight Days next after the day of such Birth, or within Three Days after the day of such Death respectively, give Notice of such Birth or Death to the Registrar of the District; and in case any new-born child or any dead body shall be found exposed, the Overseers of the Poor in the case of the new-born child, and the Coroner, in the case of the dead body..." and anyone who failed to do so could be fined 20 shillings.
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The Superintending Registrar appointed District Registrars and was required to publish a list of their names and addresses. Notification could be in person or in writing.
The incentive to notify birth was that it was free for 42 days, 7s 6d to pay if later and within 6 months.
This 1836 newspaper snippet gives an idea of the territory one individual covered,
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Yet by October 1837 the Rector of Hornsey published in a letter to parishioners that advised -
"It is not your business to apply to the Registrar upon the birth of any child ... But the Registrar is authorised and required to inform himself carefully himself of any birth and any death which shall happen in his district ..."
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AnthonyMMM is a former registrar and can thrown some more light on the subject. I think the registrars prior to 1875 advertised their address. From 1875 onwards it was the duty of the parents or whoever was present at the birth to register the birth.
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I have a couple of early period District Registrars (registrars of births and deaths), in Norfolk within the family. One worked primarily as a tailor but the other was an inspector of the highways and taxidermist. I can see how the highway inspection could dovetail with travelling around the district but I hope the taxidermy skills were never called upon.
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Joseph Fitze, a saddler in Ashburton, was the registrar in that town for 25 years :
1836. Joseph Fitze had been elected by the Newton (Abbot) Poor Law Union to be the Registrar for Births and Deaths. It was his 'anxious study to give that satisfaction to the Public at large which the appointment requires'. Western Times 17 December 1836
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Audrey Collins' podcast and transcript on Early civil registration provides background
https://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/early-civil-registration/
https://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/civil-registration-and-beyond/
also https://www.family-tree.co.uk/how-to-guides/family-history-who-was-the-registrar/
https://www.ukbmd.org.uk/reg/ lists all the Districts and under them the sub-districts that appear at the top of birth and death certs you order (linked to from FreeBMD index).
Examples of inspectors' reports on superintendent registrars and registrars, 1837 to 1924
Sample of Registration Office vacancy and appointment registers for England and Wales, 1906 to 1939 listing names and occupations.
http://www2.histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/Browse?path=Browse/TNA%20Registration&active=yes&titlepos=0 worked fine last night but not connecting today
Can try the original http://www.histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/Browse?path=Browse/TNA%20Registration&active=yes&titlepos=0 server but that often says it is busy, both are rather old & flaky.
Regulations for the duties of registrars of births and deaths and of deputy and interim registrars: made and approved in pursuance of the Births and Deaths Registrations Acts, 1836-1874.
https://archive.org/details/b20420614
Regulations for the Duties of Superintendent Registrars, and Deputy and Interim Superintendent Registrars - book link in
https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/discover-your-ancestors/periodical/121/the-duties-of-a-victorian-registrar-2121/
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Thanks so much everyone. I feel much better informed now.
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So do I!
Thanks for asking the question.
Martin