Birth Records from England's General Register Office (GRO)

Prior to the Registration Act of 1836, the responsibility of maintaining English birth records fell primarily on churches. A method of documenting births to be held in a centralized location, apart from the church, was deemed necessary. With the creation of the Registration Act of 1836, the General Register Office (GRO) in London was established to maintain the birth records in England and Wales, no matter one’s religious affiliations.

The records held at the GRO can be a great genealogical source. Even if parentage can be determined using church and census records, ordering a birth record can add valuable information. GRO birth records can provide important details such as the date and place of birth, parents’ names (including the mother’s maiden name), the father’s occupation, the town of residence, and sometimes even a street address.

Some may say the record isn’t necessary because parentage can be determined using church and census records and the mother’s maiden name is often in the index on the GRO website.

Sometimes this is true. I have ordered some records where I gained nothing new. I already had all the information provided on the record. But sometimes I’ve found new information. Until you look at the record, you won’t know which category it falls into.

A Little Bit About the GRO

Beginning 1 July 1837, all births, marriages, and deaths were to be registered with the local registrar.¹ The purpose was to provide a legal register of births, marriages, and deaths which did not exist prior to this time. Previously, those who needed to have proof of parentage or age, relied on baptism records as evidence. If a baptism location was unknown, it could be laborious to track down that record. Additionally, not everyone was baptized, making it difficult to prove one’s age if needed. Having a standardized birth registration was intended to simplify the process of finding birth information for those of any religion.²

The birth registration process allowed parents 42 days to register the birth without charge. After this time, the birth could be registered, for a fee, until the child was 6 months old.³ The Registration Act of 1836 (which went into effect 1 July 1837) did not mention a penalty for non-compliance.⁴ A newspaper article from 1837 tried to encourage compliance by reminding readers that they could still be charged for disobeying an injunction of the legislature.⁵ It is unclear if any indictments occured. The 1874 Act specifically mentioned a penalty, giving teeth to the requirement to register a birth.⁶

At the end of each quarter, the local registrar would make a copy of each entry and send them into the General Register Office (GRO) in London, England.⁷ The GRO holds copies of each of these records and they can be ordered for a small fee at their website, www.gro.gov.uk. It is required to create a free login in order to search the index.

It is important to remember that these are copies of the original, as births were reported to the district office and copies were sent into the GRO each quarter. It is possible mistakes occurred while making the copy.

If you can’t find the person you are looking for, search other similar names and/or other indexes (such as on genealogy subscription websites). Also keep in mind that registration wasn’t compulsory until 1874 and your person of interest may not have had their birth registered.

Do I Order a Certificate or a PDF copy?

The GRO website offers two options for ordering a birth entry. One is for a certificate and one is for a PDF copy. I highly recommend ordering the PDF copy unless you need a certified copy for some reason.

The PDF copy is a scanned image of the entry in GRO’s possession while a certificate has the scanned image printed on official certificate paper with the associated seals and markings. This is an improvement from earlier years when they used to type up the information into the certificate. Luckily technology has improved and there are two options for receiving an image of the birth entry.

Unless an official certificate is needed for some reason, I prefer the PDF copy. It arrives sooner, is easy to view on my computer, and is easy to enlarge. However, you have to remember to download it from the website and save it for future use as it is only in your account for a few months. I know some people who prefer paper copies, so they order the certificate. It is really up to you and what your preferences are.

More Information Than Expected

An example printed in an 1836 newspaper shows the mother’s name section filled out as “Rebecca Green, formerly Jennings”.⁸

All records I have seen used “formerly” to represent the maiden name. Sometimes additional information is also included! One example of this is on the birth record for Elizabeth Walton. The mother’s name is listed as “Maria Walton late Lowther formerly Banks.” The record below reveals the extra information, showing the progression of her names.⁹

Maria Walton was the mother’s name at Elizabeth’s birth. The term late is often used to reference someone who had died, such as a late husband. In this instance, it was her previous married name. And, as already discussed, “formerly” was used to identify the mother’s maiden name, which in this example was Banks.

Not all records will include previous names, such as this one. No guidance is listed in the Registration Act to include names other than the maiden name, leaving the additional information up to the discretion of the registrar. When additional information like this is added, it can provide hints for finding other records, or confirm connections already made. Maria’s previous marriage had already been discovered before this record was ordered, but had it not been, this could have been a key to unlocking a mystery.

7 Things that are Good to Know

#1: An address may or may not be on a birth record. A birth location was typically listed in the same box as the date of birth. Typically the birth location is listed as a town or parish, but in later years you might see an address. The box for the informant asks for the informant’s residence. The informant was typically either the child’s mother or father, giving the possibility of discovering the address where the family lived. The example in Schedule A of the Registration Act has a street address listed as an address but I have seen multiple birth records where only a town or parish are listed.¹⁰

#2: The name registered in the birth record may be different from their baptism name or a name they went by throughout their life. For instance, someone could have been registered as “Lizzie” but other records include her name as “Elizabeth,” implying that Lizzie was a nickname rather than an official name. Additionally, sometimes a birth registration record only includes a first name, and the individual was called by their middle name throughout their life.

#3: The occupation is helpful to distinguish between individuals with the same name in the same geographical area, especially if you are trying to link census records to the correct family. Additionally, there are records pertaining to certain occupations that might provide additional genealogical clues. Some people changed careers during their life and birth records can show when transitions occurred, especially if ordering records for multiple children.

#4: If a child was illegitimate, the father portion of the form will likely be blank. The Births and Registration Act of 1874 says that a father can only be listed if both the supposed father and the mother go to the registrar’s office together and both state they want the father’s name on the registration.¹¹ The Registration Act of 1836 doesn’t address how to deal with illegitimate children, but it is unlikely a father’s name of an illegitimate child will appear on a record prior to 1874.¹²

#5: The index on the GRO website often includes the mother’s maiden name. FindMyPast also has the mother’s maiden name in some of the indexes. If the mother’s maiden name is listed as the same surname as the child, it is a hint that the child may be illegitimate, as the mother and child would have the same surname. However, it is also possible both parents were born with the same surname. Sometimes the index just has dashes for the mother’s maiden name, hinting that the mother’s current name is her maiden name and that the child is likely illegitimate.

#6: The birth certificate can give an indication of one of the parent’s ability to write. The registration form has a spot for the signature of the informant, typically the mother or father. Since the GRO records are copies of the original, the signature provided is not the informant’s actual signature, but it does show that they signed their name. If it says “The mark of…” that means they could not sign their name. Typically an “X” was used as their mark. The signature section therefore gives an indication as to whether the person could write or not.

#7: A child may have been registered without a name if they had not yet been baptized. One newspaper article recommends parents should register the child by the name they intended to be called.¹³ Yet many births were still registered as “infant” or the name section was left out. There is a section to add a name after they were baptized, but I have never seen this section filled out. There was an additional fee to have a baptized name added to the record and it had to be recorded within seven days of baptism.¹⁴

Birth Certificate Fields

The certificate has the following fields:

• When and where born
• Name, if any
• Sex
• Name and surname of father
• Name, surname and maiden surname of mother
• Occupation of father
• Signature, description [e.g. mother, father], and residence of informant
• When registered
• Signature of registrar
• Name entered after registration

For more information on how to order a birth certificate from the GRO, Her Majesty’s Passport Office published a leaflet detailing information about the certificate and how to order one. Page 2 of the leaflet shows an example certificate.

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