Civil Registration Timeline
Cornwall Family History Society CFHS Research Library
A timeline of key milestones highlights the evolution of registration, marriage, and legal reforms shaping civil and social records in Britain and Ireland.
1538 | Thomas CROMWELL issues orders for parish registers to be kept to record every ‘wedding, christening, and burying’. |
1753 | Lord HARDWICKE‘s act for ‘the better preventing of clandestine marriages’ means all marriages must take place within the established church (except for those of Jews and Quakers). |
1834 | When the New Poor Law (1834) replaced the Elizabethan statutes that regulated parish relief, workhouse inmates’ religious rights were protected. |
1835 | The government began keeping central records of prisons in England following the passing of the Gaols Act and the 1835 Prisons Act. |
1836 | An ‘act for registering births, deaths, and marriages’ is finally passed with an accompanying Marriage Act (relaxing HARDWICKE’s rules and enabling civil marriages). |
1837 | Only a few days after Victoria becomes Queen, civil registration begins in England and Wales on 1st July. |
1845 | The registration of non-Catholic marriages in Ireland begins. |
1855 | Civil registrations introduced in Scotland on 1st January. |
1858 | New divorce laws made ending an unhappy marriage a realistic proposition for the first time. |
1864 | Full introduction of civil registration in Ireland takes place on 1st January. |
1874 | A registration act is passed updating the 1836 act. Deaths now require a doctor’s certificate and an unmarried father must attend and sign the register to be named on a birth entry. |
1898 | The Authorized Persons Act means that nonconformist places of worship can now conduct marriages without a registrar needing to attend. |
1911 | The General Register Office indexes now show a maiden name on birth entries. |
1912 | Spouse’s surnames are added to the GRO’s marriage indexes. |
1926 | The Legitimacy Act allows births to be re-registered if the unwed parents have subsequently married. |
1926 | Yet another Births and Deaths Registration Act introduces the registration of stillborn children. |
1927 | Adoption is legally regulated, and the Ge
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