Who/where were the Registrars?

[jane k]

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?

[KGarrad]

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.

[CaroleW]

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

[KGarrad]

what was the name of the village?
Where was it?

[Andy J2022]

  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 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.

[hanes teulu]

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,

   

[hanes teulu]

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 ..."

[coombs]

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.

[Glen in Tinsel Kni]

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.