Federation Of Family History Societies

Civil Registration Modernisation

 

After the draft Regulatory Reform Order on the Modernisation of Civil Registration was withdrawn, following lack of support from the Parliamentary Select Committees, the General Register Office has been progressing the Modernisation of Civil Registration in two ways. You will have read the recent message on FFHS-NEWS giving our comments on the proposals to reform the procedures at register offices and for new registrations.

Alongside this, the Digitisation of Vital Events (DoVE) Project is computerising the records of previous registrations. The first in a series of News Bulletins can be read on the GRO web site at
www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/aboutus/lookingahead/Digitisation_of_Vital_Events.asp

The Project includes production of new indexes of the data keyed from the copy certificates. What you may not be aware of is that the FFHS have been liaising with the GRO through regular meetings at a senior level, to try to ensure that family historians gain the maximum possible benefit from the Project. We are now able to announce that the main improvement we have been pressing for from the outset has at last been agreed.

Once the new computerised Civil Registration indexes are available, all records in the indexes from the September quarter of 1837 onwards (the start of Civil Registration in England and Wales) will include:

• age at death for deaths (currently included only from the January quarter of 1866)
• mother's maiden name for births (currently included only from September quarter of 1911)
• surname of the other party for marriages (currently included only from the January quarter of 1912)

We regard this as a breakthrough which should prove of immense benefit to research in the future.

Geoff Riggs
Director of Computer & Internet Facilities
Federation of Family History Societies