Bourton & District

BMD & Census

Tracing your family tree requires a lot of detective work. The two major sources for 19th and 20th century family history information are Civil Registration (Birth, Marriage and Death Certificates) and the Census.

Official records of births, marriages and deaths (BMDs) were introduced in England and Wales in 1837, in Scotland in 1855 and in Ireland in 1864. For England and Wales the first census with people’s names was in 1841. You may need to obtain certificates and to find your ancestors in the census to take your research back to the 1800s. Parish Registers may hold baptism, marriage and burial details going back to the 16th century.
Subscription sites such as Ancestry and Find My Past (available to use free at Gloucestershire libraries)are frequently adding parish records to their sites. Thus it may be possible to find the information you require from this source rather than paying for a certificate.

CIVIL REGISTRATION (ENGLAND & WALES)

OVERVIEW

July 1837- National System for registering Birth, Marriage and Deaths

Birth Certificates – maiden name of mother, name and occupation of father, address

Marriage Certificate- includes name and occupation of bride and groom’s father

Death Certificate- place of death, cause of death, and informant.

To order a certificate you need:
Name
Year
Quarter,
Registration District
Volume
Page No.

Need to search the indexes.
Online
In person at local office (microfiche)

Quarters:
Mar (registered 1 Jan through 31st March)
Jun (registered 1 Apr through 30 June)
Sep (registered 1 July through 30 Sept)
Dec (registered 1 Oct through 31 Dec)

Person born 31 December 1866 for instance will appear in Mar Qtr 1867

Indexes
From Sept 1911 the Birth Indexes show mother’s maiden name
From 1912 Marriage Indexes show name of spouse

Tips
If your ancestor was born before 1837, try looking for the birth certificate of a younger sibling to get the maiden name of mother.

If you know both surnames to a marriage- look up the least common name.

Problems:
Not all events were registered. 1874 fines were introduced for non notification.
Illiteracy-people not knowing how their names were spelt.
Very common names in urban areas (e.g. Martha Thomas born in Dowlais)

If you know the village that your ancestor came from, but are unsure of the registration district, Brett Langston has compiled a useful list.

See
http://ukbmd.org.uk/genuki/places/index.html

Also an alphabetical list of registration districts can be seen at
http://ukbmd.org.uk/genuki/reg/districts/index.html

Registration Districts by county can be seen at
http://ukbmd.org.uk/genuki/reg/

CENSUS

The Censuses for England, Scotland and Wales were taken on the following Sundays:

1841 6 June
1851 30 March
1861 7 April
1871 2 April
1881 3 April
1891 5 April
1901 31 March
1911 2 April

The Census returns from 1921 are not yet available because of the 100 year confidentiality rules. Unfortunately a mysterious fire destroyed the 1931 census returns and the Second World War resulted in the cancellation of the 1941 Census for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

PARISH REGISTERS

Before 1837, there was no nationwide scheme of registration. You will need to use registers of baptism, marriage and burial kept by local parish churches, so it is important to have an idea of where a person lived.
The systematic keeping of parish registers began between 1538 and 1598 and continues to the present, except for the period 1640-1660. You will need to bear in mind that not all parishes will have registers dating back this far and the earliest English Parish Registers dating from 1538 are quite rare.