Compliance with civil registration

Garlinge

I have come up with some relatives that I cannot find in the civil registration list despite numerous tweaks of spelling,dates etc. In a couple of case I did find a church record for baptism and marriage that 'fit'. So does anyone know what the rate of compliance was for registering with civil authorities. Am I correct is assuming it was the church's role to submit records? What cost was it say c 1870 to register a birth? was it prohibitive and what were the penalties for failure to do so? I presume compliance varied from county to county and between rural and urban areas, distance from registration office.

pinkypinky

It would be worth your while reading John Grenham's chapter on this topic.
There are no figures for compliance but like any new system, it took a while to bed in. Certainly we don't consider the 1860s to be complete.

You are wrong to presume the church was involved, except for marriages, the onus was on the person to register births and deaths. There was a timeframe (full details within 3 months for a birth and 21 days for a death, much shorter, maybe a few days for a marriage).

pedroeibar1

Cut and paste from my archives

Compulsory civil registration of births, deaths and marriages was introduced in Ireland in 1864. Non-registration was due to carelessness, ignorance, cost and later – nationalism. There also were fines for late reporting. From 1864 it was acknowledged that there was significant under-recording of BMD events. The Registrar General for Ireland repeatedly drew attention to this.

In his first Annual Report relating to 1864 he stated:
“I consider that many Births, Deaths, and Marriages have not been registered... notwithstanding the exertions made to induce a general compliance with the law throughout the country, numerous cases of neglect to register births and deaths have been reported to me by the District Registrars” (p. 16).

In his eleventh Annual Report (for 1874) he repeated this warning:
“I beg here to repeat the observations made in my former Reports, with respect to the working of the Acts for the Registration of Births, Deaths, and Marriages in Ireland, as I regret to state that the numbers of these events registered in 1872 do not show much improvement compared with previous years” (p. 16).

In the sixteenth Annual Report (for 1879) a new Registrar, commenting on the rise in deaths recorded in that year, stated:
“The excess in the death-rate [in 1879] is not altogether owing to the increased mortality which it implies, much of it being due to the improvement in registration effected through the Burial Returns obtained under the Public Health (Ireland) Acts, 1878-9, the provisions of which, authorizing these Returns, were put into operation in the course of the year...” (pp. 5-6).

Tightening up of the regulations surrounding social welfare and better social welfare in the 1930’s ensured compliance with births and marriages, but registration of deaths has always been a problem – I recall a study of mortality tables highlighting the non-reporting of deaths was particularly high as late as the 1990’s – over 10% in some counties, the West was worst.

Garlinge

I thought the register was signed in the church at time of ceremony and then transcripts submitted every quarter? I found out that my own marriage certificate was incorrect by virtue of wrong christian name being entered. I managed for 35 yrs not to realise I was not legally married in eyes of state! I am surprised that the copy of church register was sufficient down the years as proof of marriage.

pinkypinky

The rules are different now and probably were different again 35 years ago.

The paperwork signed in the church has to be submitted to the GRO. The church had this responsibility in the past but does not now. They had to notify the local GRO within a quite short time, and the local GRO notified the head office quarterly.