Wisdom Wednesday- UK & Ireland Civil Registration

Country	Civil Registration Began*	Records Access
England	1837	The Indexes: The National Archives Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU www.nationalarchives.gov.uk www.freebmd.co.uk www.ancestry.com Order Certificates: General Register Office PO Box 2, Southport Merseyside  PR8 2JD (by mail) www.gro.gov.uk
Wales	1837	Same as above, but also district Registries in Wales. See the Index in person at: National Library of Wales Penglais, Aberystwyth Dyfed 2Y23 3BU www.llgc.org.uk
Scotland	1855	General  Register Office for Scotland New Register House Edinburgh EH1 3YT www.gro-scotland.gov.uk will direct you to: www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
Ireland	1864 From 1845-Present - Protestant Marriage Records	General Register Office of Ireland Irish Life Centre Lower Abbey Street Dublin 1 www.groireland.ie
Northern Ireland	1864 From 1845-Present - Protestant Marriage Records	General Register Office of Northern Ireland Oxford House 49/55 Chichester Street Belfast, BT1 4HL www.nidirect.gov.uk

©2012, Susan Lewis Well

*Civil registration is the government recording of vital records, a U.S. term. In the UK, they are known as BMD certificates.  Civil Registration Indexes list alphabetically all the births, all the marriages and all the deaths in a three month period and the book and page where the certificate can be found.  Before ordering a certificate from the GROs, you need the book and page found in the Index.
Records before the beginning of civil registration were kept by churches and included christenings, marriages and burials.