Civil Registrations

In 1837 Great Britain, the government established Civil Registration, or the system of recording all births, marriages, and deaths in registers kept by the Registrar General of England and Wales. They did this to be sure that the vital records pertaining to their citizens were recorded. When it was established, numerous families were already members of nonconformist religions or did not belong to any church. Besides, there were some religions who did not record births, marriages or deaths. Therefore, records of these events which are so important to genealogists and to other individuals were not being kept on thousands of individuals.

Great Britain was one of the most powerful nations in the world. As they conquered or had influence on other nations, the system of Civil Registration was established elsewhere. Ontario, a province in Canada, and one of Britian's former colonies kept its birth, marriages and deaths by civil authorities starting in 1869. But Great Britain was not the first to keep Civil Registrations. France began a system of requiring civil registrars to keep a record of births starting in 1792.