Coventry Archives – Guide No 5.
A GUIDE TO CIVIL REGISTRATION
Civil registration, that is the registration of births, marriages and deaths, was introduced in England and Wales on 1 July 1837 as the industrial revolution began to erode old patterns of rural life, and new religious movements such as Baptists and Quakers were becoming established. Thereafter it was a requirement for all births, marriages and deaths to be registered with the local registrar, although penalties for non-registration were not introduced until 1875. The only records before 1837 are the records of baptisms, marriages and burials performed by the Church of England (see page 4) and other churches, such as Methodists, Roman Catholics, Baptists, Congregationalists and Presbyterians. In 1837, for the purposes of civil registration, the country was divided into registration districts. Each registration district covered the same area as one or more of the Poor Law Unions: that is a number of Church of England parishes (or townships) grouped together for the relief of the poor. Every registration district therefore contained a number of parishes. The boundaries of registration districts changed over time principally in 1937 and 1974. In 1837, the County of Warwickshire (of which Coventry was a part) was divided into 21 registration districts, which were as follows:
Alcester Aston Atherstone Banbury Birmingham Chipping Norton Coventry Foleshill Hinckley King’s Norton Lutterworth
Meriden Nuneaton Rugby Shipston on Stour Solihull Southam Stourbridge Stratford on Avon Tamworth Warwick
For details of which parishes fell into each district please see the Parish Register folder in the searchroom.
Registration After 1837 each registrar was able to register births, civil marriages and deaths, but only a superintendent registrar was able to perform civil marriages. Church of England clergyman were still allowed to perform marriages without a registrar in attendance, but a registrar was required to be present and record marriages performed by clergymen not of the Church of England, such as Methodists, Roman Catholics, Presbyterians and Congregationalists. After 1898 it was no longer necessary, in many cases, for a registrar to be present at such marriages.
Copies of Entries Local registrars were required to send copies of the entries in their registers each quarter to their superintendent registrar, who sent them to the Registrar General in London (originally Somerset House, then St Catherine’s House, and now in the Family Records Centre, 1 Myddleton Street, London). Two copies of each certificate of birth marriage and death, therefore exist, one kept by the superintendent registrar in his own registration district and one kept by the Registrar General in London. Copies of the entries of marriages performed by the Church of England clergy (and after 1898, other clergymen) are collected each quarter and details sent to the Registrar General. The duplicate register, used whenever a church marriage is performed, is not sent to the superintendent registrar until it is filled. Indexes The original registers retained by the superintendent registrar for each registration district (and the copies collected from Clergymen) are indexed quarter by quarter. The registers themselves are not available for inspection but the indexes are available for consultation at the superintendent registrar’s office by appointment and on payment of a fee (currently £18 for a period of up to six hours). The indexes held by a superintendent registrar relate only to the births, marriages and deaths, which occur in his district. The Registrar General compiles alphabetical indexes from the information sent to him by the superintendent registrars and these indexes cover the whole of England and Wales. There are separate indexes for births, marriages and deaths and the indexes can be seen at the Family Records Centre in London. The indexes give the name of the individual, the quarter in which his or her birth, marriage or death occurred and the registration district in which it occurred. A series of reference numbers follow, which are of relevance only to the General Register Office. Indexes up to 1983 were compiled for quarters of the year (e.g. March quarter – January, February, March etc.) by the date of registration; consequently a birth or death may be registered in a quarter later than that in which the event occurred. From 1984 the indexes are compiled for the full year and give the month and year of the event. Birth indexes from September 1911 contain the maiden name of the mother. Marriage indexes from January 1912 give the name of both parties to the marriage under both entries. Death indexes from January 1866 to March 1869 give the age of the deceased; from April 1969 the deceased’s date of birth is given. The General Register Office holds other registers – still-births; births and deaths at sea; births and deaths in aircraft; service births, marriages and deaths; consular registers of births marriages and deaths; registers of service deaths in World Wars I and II; adopted children.
Copy Certificates Certificates of entries in registers can be supplied on payment of a fee (currently £6.50). Certificates of entries in the registers held by the superintendent registrar can be supplied by that superintendent registrar. Copies of entries in the registers for the whole of England and Wales can be supplied from either: Family Records Centre, 1 Myddleton Road, London, EC1 1UW for personal callers only General Register Office, OPCS, PO Box 2, Southport, Merseyside, PR8 2JD for postal applications. Further details of the costs of certificates and fees for searches are available from any superintendent register of the General Register Office. St Catherine’s House Indexes These indexes to the Register General’s records (popularly known as the St Catherine’s House Indexes’) have been microfilmed and the films have been purchased by some local libraries and branches of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints (the Mormon Church). Locally places with the St Catherine’s House Indexes are: Local Studies, Central Library, Smithford Way, Coventry CV1 1FY (024 76832336) Warwickshire County Record Office, Priory Park, Cape Road, Warwick, CV34 4JS (01926 738959) Birmingham Central Library, Chamberlain Square, Birmingham, B3 3HQ (0121 3033586)
Divorce Records From 1st January 1858 it was possible for a husband to obtain a divorce on the grounds of adultery and for a wife to obtain one on the combined grounds of cruelty and adultery. This changed in 1925, but it was the 1969 divorce reform act that made the irretrievable breakdown of marriage the sole grounds for divorce. Indexed divorce files (decrees absolute) for England and Wales 1858-1943 are kept at the Public Record Office (classes J77 and J78) but are closed for 75 years. Permission can be obtained to consult individual cases from the Divorce Registry at the Principal Registry of the Family Division, First Avenue House, 42-49 High Holburn, London WC1V 6NP.
Present Registration Districts Below are the contact details for the Superintendent Registrars for the most local registration districts: Coventry Ray Plant 024 76833137 Mid-Warwickshire Liz Boileau 01926 494269 (covering the Warwick, Leamington and Kenilworth areas) Rugby Diane Lampard 01788 571233 Nuneaton Sue Hammond 01788 348944 North Warwickshire Christine Parsonage 01827 713241 (covering the Atherstone and Tamworth areas) South Warwickshire Peter Hanks 01788 293711 (covering Stratford on Avon and the surrounding villages) Solihull Francis Eriver 0121 7046099 Birmingham Mr Rees 0121 21234 Parish Registers Parish registers commence in 1538 (although many early registers have been lost), and they record the ecclesiastical ceremonies of baptism, marriage and burial. Births and deaths are not recorded in parish registers but by civil registration authorities (see page 1) from 1837. The Coventry City Archives holds a large number of registers for Coventry and the surrounding areas on microfilm, which can be inspected by the public in the searchroom. However the relevant church may still hold some registers and to access them you would have to contact the local clergyman. Limitations which must be born in mind: (1) Parish registers are the records of the established church and do not necessarily contain information on all the inhabitants of a parish. By the end of the nineteenth century all non-conformist churches had their own systems of recording events. (2) It is essential to know the parish in which the event took place and this may not be the parish in which the people concerned were living. The boundaries of parishes have changed, especially in the nineteenth century when many new parishes were created, and a village or part of a town may be in different parishes at various dates. It must be remembered that a large town could contain a substantial number of parishes by the end of the nineteenth century. Civil registration districts, which are given on birth, marriage and death certificates, have different boundaries from parishes. (3) Only a comparatively small number of registers are indexed, all unofficially, and the coverage and standard of the indexing is variable. (4) Difficulties over the handwriting can occur in the earlier registers, and in addition entries were sometimes made in Latin.