Selected events

Selected events in the history of civil registration and boundary changes:
1801-1996

(Subsequent to the publication of this table, a much fuller and more authoritative timeline has been produced as an appendix to a report on the GeoX Walk Project Gazetteer. [web page no longer found – MS])

1801	Census of Population Carried out by Overseers of the Poor and local clergy in England and Wales, and schoolmasters in Scotland
1834	The Poor Law Amendment Act grouped 15,000 parishes into 700 Poor Law Unions controlled by Boards of Guardians. Establishment of the Poor Law Commission
1836	Births and Deaths Registration Act and Marriage Act Office of Registrar General established, and system of civil registration based on the Board of Guardians
1837	The General Register Office established as a subsidiary department of the Home Office England and Wales divided into 619 Registration Districts Registration commences 1st July Births and Deaths at sea recorded
1840	Civil registration of births and deaths commenced in Guernsey
1842	Civil registration commenced in Jersey
1844	Poor Law Amendment Act The Poor Law Commission could alter the composition of Unions,without consent, but not dissolve them
1847	Poor Law Board replaces the Poor Law Commission
1851	Census snapshot: 623 Registration Districts National indexes: Arabic numbering system reflects the assignment of Registration Counties to the new Registration Divisions; lasts till August 1946
1855	General Register Office (Scotland) established
1861	Census – first to be carried out in Scotland – as well as England and Wales based on the civil registration system “The 634 superintendent registration districts in England and Wales are generally co-extensive with the Poor Law Unions, and are subdivided into 2,194 sub-districts, each having a local registrar of births and deaths” (1861 Census Abstracts)
1864	General Register Office (Ireland) established
1866	Age at death given in National Indexes
1867	Poor Law Amendment Act: Section 3 gave the Poor Law Board power, after a local enquiry, to make a provisional order to adjust parochial boundaries, provided that the parish was divided, and 1 in 10 of the ratepayers made application for this to be done. Resulted in 6 cases e.g. E and W Lavant applied
1869	Metropolitan Poor Act: Poor Law Board given power in the case of the Metropolis alone to adjust parochial boundaries without a provisional order or application by the inhabitants
1871	Local Government Board established; GRO becomes a subsidiary part Snapshot: 626 superintendent registration districts and 32,543 census enumerators (E & W)
1872	Public Health Act: creation of Sanitary Districts based on the Poor Law Unions
1873	Select Committee on Parish, Union and County Boundaries established. Evidence to them revealed that: – 1296 parishes had detached parts (this figure did not include the numerous detached townships of the North) – 181 out of 650 Unions overlapped county boundaries – also 52 counties, 647 Unions, 626 Registration Districts, 2195 Sub-Districts, 15 416 Civil Parishes
1874	Births And Deaths Act: a duty of those present at a birth or death to register it (applied from 1875) Death certificate required for the burial of a stillborn child
1875	Father’s name can be recorded if he acknowledges paternity Death had to be registered within 5 days
1876	Divided Parishes and Poor Law Amendment Act: Local Government Board given power in cases of divided parishes after local inquiry – to constitute separate parishes from the separate portions of the divided parish – to amalgamate some of the parts with the parish in which situated – if requisite, the county of the parish could be changed. Order only provisional if 1 in 10 of ratepayers objected
1876- 1881	268 detached parishes were dealt with by the Local Government Board
1878	Isle of Man: compulsory civil registration of births and deaths commenced
1879	Poor Law Amendment Act consolidated the 1876 Act; provided for special cases e.g. when municipal borough boundary crossed a parish
1881	Snapshot: 630 Registration districts in England and Wales
1882	Divided Parishes Act and Poor Law Amendment Act – automatic procedure established – if a detached part were entirely surrounded by another parish, it should be amalgamated – amalgamation to apply from March 25, 1883
1883- 1889	1,904 Detached Parishes were eliminated in this period
1884	Isle of Man: compulsory civil registration of marriages commenced
1887	Local Government Boundaries Act – Commissioners appointed to inquire into how county and union boundaries could be made coterminous (181 Unions crossed county lines)
1888	Local Government Act Creation of Administrative Counties, County Councils and County Boroughs – Empowerment of the Local Government Board on the application of a county council (or borough council) to alter the boundaries of the county (or borough) , subject to parliamentary confirmation – County Councils now responsible for making orders altering the boundaries of parishes, subject to confirmation of the LGB
1889	Local Government (Scotland) Act appoints Boundary Commission to consider and alter where necessary boundaries of counties through Scotland
1891	Snapshot (E & W):633 Registration Districts, 2110 Sub-districts, 14684 Civil Parishes Snapshot (Scotland):1050 Registrars, 8926 census enumerators employed Registrars were encouraged to alter the boundaries of their census enumeration districts to take into account the changes brought about by the various Divided Parishes Acts. Prior to 1891, the emphasis was on retaining the boundaries of the previous census. Many anomalies, however, still existed post-1891
1894	Local Government Act “..the whole of each parish and unless the County Council otherwise direct, the whole of each Rural District, shall be within the same Administrative County.” Urban and Rural District Councils established. These were based on those Poor Law Unions which together with the boroughs had been made sanitary authorities. Parish councils and parish meetings set up for those areas that fell under Rural District Councils In the period 1901-1911, only 3 administrative counties were unaffected by boundary changes – Nottinghamshire, Rutland, Suffolk
1899	London Government Act divided the Administrative County of London into 28 Metropolitan Boroughs
1901	Census snapshot: In the registration district of Chester, 262 out of 814 districts contained two or more parts of various administrative divisions
1901- 1911	Snapshot: 70 parishes created in E & W; 348 absorbed into other parishes; 332 underwent changes of area
1907	City of London (Union of Parishes) Act: 112 City Parishes amalgamated into 1 Civil Parish
1910	Sept: typed GRO National Index volumes replace printed ones 2nd forename is replaced by initial only
1911	Mother’s maiden name appears in National Indexes Birthplace recorded by Administrative rather than Ancient County on Census
1911	Snapshot: 4 categories of Registration Areas England and Wales had 635 Registration Districts and 2,009 registration sub-districts 9 Registration Districts included a pair of PLUs 14,614 Civil Parishes Still 921 divided parishes existed
1912	Bride and Groom Indexed in National Indexes
1915	National Registration Act – Local authorities – under the guidance of the Registrar General – to register the wartime adult population
1919	Local Government Board is disbanded GRO becomes a subsidiary part of the Ministry of Health Civil registration of marriages commenced on Guernsey, Alderney and Sark
1926	Civil registration of births and deaths commenced on Sark and Alderney
1926	First Adoption of Children Act: Adopted Children Register to be kept by RG Compulsory Registration of Stillbirths applied from 1927
1926	Local Government (County Boroughs and Adjustments) Act: A municipal borough could only be created a county borough by a Local Act Extension to county borough boundaries only if no objections, and then only by Local Bill
1929	Local Government Act A system of Regions and Districts replaced the earlier system of Regions, Counties and Districts i.e. Registration Counties ceased as a unit of aggregation. Poor Law Unions were abolished and their functions transferred to Local Government Authorities – Counties and County Boroughs The number of Districts was much reduced. 275 Districts were abolished and their areas absorbed into larger units Registrars now paid by Local Authorities (no legal employer, but overseen by inspectorate) on a salaried basis County councils were required to commence a Review of the areas of their county districts; as a consequence from 1931 to 1937, the total number of urban and rural districts was reduced from 1606 to 1048, and there were 1,300 boundary changes from 1929-1938
1930s	Snapshot: 58 boundary changes affecting 22 counties between 1929-1937
1933	Local Government Act (consolidating the 1926 Act): – A county council could propose to the Minister the union of a county with a county borough – A county borough could propose its own incorporation into a county – Both could make a joint representation for a mutual adjustment of their boundaries – A county council could propose the alteration of the boundaries of a county district, and it could propose the creation or abolition of urban and rural districts and civil parishes The 1933 Act put county councils firmly in the position of ‘engines of reform’ in local boundary changes. They were empowered to review all areas within a county except propose the abolition of a municipal borough.
1939	National Registration Act – wartime identity cards issued
1946	September: Re-assignment of counties within the numbering system in the National indexes Lasts till March 1974
1947	The short birth certificate introduced in December
1949	Births in the air recorded
1951	Last census to directly involve registrars Snapshot: 9 Regional Regions, 488 Registration Districts, 1075 Regional Sub-Districts The 1075 regional sub-districts are so distributed as to facilitate the tasks of registration, while they are small enough for one enumerator to handle at times of census taking; further, they fit into the jigsaw of local administrative boundaries
1952	National Health Service Central Register commenced – from National Registration records
1953	Registration Service Act. The local authority of each county and metroplitan district to have a scheme in force to determine registration district boundaries
1958	Local Government Act established the Local Government Commission for England and Wales with responsibility for recommending alterations to county boundaries
1960	Cause of Death of Stillbirths
1965	London Government Act : resulted in registration district boundary changes in the Metropolis
1966	Births: any second forename now in full
1968	GRO becomes a subsidiary part of the DHSS
1969	1st April: format of the birth certificate changes Mother’s maiden name appears in Local Indexes Surname of the child entered (previously inferred from parents’ name) Date of birth (and full name) given in National Death Indexes
1970	GRO and Government Social Survey combined to form Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (OPCS)
1972	Births on hovercraft recorded
1973	Northern Ireland: Oct 1973: the two-tier structure was replaced by a structure of single-tier district council areas
1974	April: Implementation of local government re-organisation (under the Local Government Act, 1972) – County boroughs etc abolished – New administrative counties created – Registration Districts re-organisation, at least 179 abolished
1984	BMD indexes now arranged annually instead of by quarter
1986	Occupation of mother recorded
1987	Registration (E & W) Snapshot: 117 local authorities responsible for 416 Registration Districts, staffed by almost 2000 Registration Officers
1996	Office for National Statistics(ONS) formed from OPCS and Central Statistical Office (CSO)
1995- 1998	England: April 1995 to April 1998, Creation of 46 single-tier unitary authorities to supplement the two-tier structure created in 1974. Abolition of the counties of Avon and Humberside Wales: the complete two-tier local government structure was replaced by 22 unitary authorites in April 1996 Scotland: April 1996, 32 single-tier unitary authorities replaced the existing structure
2000?	In both North Yorkshire and Bedfordshire, the County Councils recently amalgamated all the registration districts within their county to form one registration district for the county, named North Yorkshire and Bedfordshire, respectively.

Compiled from:

Edward Higgs Making Sense of the Census Revisited (London, Institute of Historical Research, 2005) ISBN 1905165005.

Mark Herber Ancestral Trails: The Complete Guide to British Genealogy and Family History (Genealogical Publishing Company, 1998) ISBN-10: 0806315415

Vivian D Lipman Local government areas 1834-1945 (New York, MacMillan, 1949) ISBN: 0837186951

Susan Lumas Making use of the census (London, PRO Publications, 3rd edition, 1999) ISBN-10: 187316243X

Muriel Nissel People count: A history of the General Register Office (London: HMSO, 1987) ISBN: 0116911832

Registrar General Census Reports

Office for National Statistics Gazetteer of the old and new geographies of the United Kingdom (London, 1999) ISBN 1 85774 298 2 [link no longer available]