in-depth help and tips on particular subjects and archive collections
• Professional researchers
A lot of professional researchers charge by the hour, though some will have a daily fee. If you do want to go down this route, shop around to get some quotes before going with the first researcher you find, and make sure a set number of hours or a price is agreed before you commission them to go ahead with the work. While most researchers will advise an estimated quote for a job, it can be very difficult to judge exactly how long it will take to get to the bottom of a mystery or to conclude a job if you haven’t simply requested a set list of document searches, so your researcher may suggest they spend an initial few hours looking into the case so that they have more of an idea what documents survive. This way you pay a smaller amount, and will be updated about further avenues that could be explored.
This section examines in detail the most important sources used to construct a family tree: civil registration or birth, marriage and death certificates, census returns, wills and probate material, and parish registers. These are used in combination. As a rough guide, civil registration certificates will be your first port of call. From the beginning of the twentieth century you can also use census returns. These will be available as far back as the early nineteenth century, before which time parish registers should be consulted. Prior to that you will only be able to rely on parish registers and probate documents.
Some of the most important sources for any family historian are the records generated by civil registration – birth, marriage and death certificates. They are, essentially, the ‘building blocks’ for any family tree and can be used to verify initial information gathered from your relatives, or extend your family tree further back in time. This chapter explains what these sources are, where you can find them, how you can order them and various ways you can extract relevant information to help with your research.
The journey from cradle to grave has been officially recorded by the state since the nineteenth century, when the civil registration of births, marriages and deaths was first introduced. The government passed legislation making it mandatory to register the birth of every child, the marriage of each couple and the death of every person from 1 July 1837 in England and Wales, with the subsequent issue of paperwork – birth, marriage and death certificates. Similar legislation enforcing the same was enacted in Scotland from 1 January 1855 and in Ireland from 1864 onwards (although Protestant marriages in Ireland had been registered since 1845). These monumental changes to everyday life came about through the government’s desire to monitor population trends more effectively, following a Parliamentary Report in 1836. Previously, the established Church of England had collected some of this information through its parish registers – a subject tackled in Chapter 7. However, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, penalties against non-conformist religious bodies were relaxed, which led to a growth in these movements, and the number of people whose journey through life was not recorded by the Church of England increased dramatically. Therefore by the beginning of the nineteenth century the information held by the established Church could no longer be deemed accurate, and so a parliamentary committee was set up to investigate the problem.
The introduction of a centralized system whereby birth, marriage and death certificates were generated is crucially important for anyone wishing to research their family tree, as it is possible to obtain copies of every certificate issued going back to the earliest records in 1837. Each type of certificate will give different clues, depending on which one is viewed, and this chapter explains how the system worked; what each certificate contains, and how you can obtain copies for your ancestors; common problems in tracking down certificates; what material is available online; and a summary of civil registration in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
‘Birth, marriage and death certificates are crucially important for anyone wishing to research their ancestors.’
Civil Registration in England and Wales
In 1837, England and Wales were divided up into 27 registration districts, based upon the contemporary Poor Law Unions. Each district was administered by a Superintendent Registrar and was further subdivided into local districts staffed by local registrars. The original registration districts were reorganized in 1852 and their number increased to 33, with a further revision taking place in 1946. A Registrar General was appointed to be responsible for the entire system and was originally based in London.
The local registrar would record each birth or death and originally it was the responsibility of the official to collect this information. He would be expected to travel through his local district and record each birth within six weeks and each death within five days. As there was no onus placed on the family to report this information there may be some gaps in the early registers. The situation changed in 1874 with the passing of the Births and Deaths Registration Act. The burden of responsibility for reporting the information now lay with the family; fines were payable for late or non-registration from 1875 onwards.
Each event was recorded on a special form, with one copy retained by the registrar and one copy issued to the informant. The information compiled locally would then be sent to the superintendent registrar, who would in turn send a copy of all registrations in his district to the Registrar General in London on a quarterly basis.
The situation was slightly different for marriages. The clergy for churches that were officially authorized to record marriages were expected to send the quarterly returns straight to the Registrar General in London. Non-conformist churches had to have their buildings licensed to perform such ceremonies, with the local registrar being legally obliged to be present to record the details. However, from 1899 the situation changed thanks to the Marriage Act of 1898, and non-conformist clergy from these churches could also record and submit the information themselves.
Making the Most of Civil Registration Certificates
Every birth, marriage and death is recorded at a local Registry Office and a certificate is produced to confirm the details of each event, although the information on each type of certificate varies according to the country it was registered in. Each country has a centralized registration index arranged chronologically so you can research all of your ancestors from one place regardless of their geographic spread. It is essential to have evidence of at least each person’s birth and marriage on your tree. Even if you are starting with yourself, make sure you can locate your birth certificate and compare it with your parents’ marriage certificate to ensure all the names, occupations and dates match up.
This process should be repeated for every person on your tree. For example, if you have a birth certificate for Mary King, born in 1912 in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, which told you that her father was Herbert King, a railway fireman, and her mother was called Thirza King, formerly Payling, then you would expect her parents’ marriage certificate to be dated prior to 1912 and contain similar details. This marriage certificate would then tell you Thirza’s father’s name and that of
