REGISTRATION OUTSIDE ENGLAND
A good general guide to General Registration worldwide is T. J. Kemp’s International Vital Records Handbook (Genealogical Publishing Co., 2001), which includes details of general registration worldwide with copies of application forms and fees.
SCOTLAND
Scottish General Registration records date from 1 January 1855 and are kept by the Registrar General of Scotland at New Register House, Edinburgh. Booking is advisable, and you will be charged a fee of £16 per day or £60 per week for access to Civil Registration, census and parish records. You can search the General Registration indexes by computer, note down the reference number of entries that seem relevant and then examine them on microfiche. The computer does not pick up variant spellings, so if your ancestor John McDonald was indexed as John MacDonall, then you will miss him unless you search under that spelling. You can check the original records at once, at no extra cost, and it is often possible to trace back to 1855 in a day. A certificate costs £6 while a photocopy of an event between 1855 and 1891 costs £1.50.
www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk is a major development in Scottish genealogy. It includes indexes to Scottish General Registration of births, marriages and deaths from 1855 to 1906, 1931 and 1956 respectively. You can see basic details of an entry for 30p or download images of the original records for £1.20.
Microfiche copies of the records 1855–1920 are available at Mormon Family History Centres and the SoG.
You can also commission a search from the register office staff.
The Registrar General of Scotland also has indexes to:
Consular returns of birth and death from 1914 and marriages from 1917.
Army births, marriages and deaths of Scots in British bases worldwide from 1881.
Deaths of Scots in the armed forces for the Boer War and the First and Second World Wars.
Births and deaths of Scots or children of Scottish fathers in British aircraft from 1948.
IRELAND
For fuller details see my Collins Tracing your Irish Family History, (Collins, 2007). Civil registration for Protestant marriages started on 1 April 1845 and on 1 January 1864 for all births, marriages and deaths. The records and registration districts were organised as in England. The public searchroom is at Joyce House, Dublin and the records will be online soon. Births are indexed quarterly. Between 1903 and 1927 and from 1966 to 1995 they are indexed annually and include the child’s date of birth as well. Mothers’ maiden names are included from 1903. Marriages and deaths are indexed quarterly right up to 1965. Indexes to marriages and deaths from 1966–1995 are in alphabetical order and with precise date and surname of spouse for marriages, and precise date, age and marital status for deaths. All post 1995 records are indexed on computer and can be checked by the staff: it is believed that all indexes will soon be online. The Registrar General in Dublin also holds:
Births at sea from 1864 and deaths at sea up to 1921
British consular returns for Irish abroad 1864–1921.
Civil records for Northern Ireland from 1922 are kept by the Registrar General of Northern Ireland, which also has microfiche copies of the Irish birth indexes from 1864. Mothers maiden names are given in the birth indexes from’ 1903. You can search the indexes for a fee of £8/day with extra charges depending on how many records you would like to see. Book in advance.
The Registrar General in Belfast also holds:
Births and deaths at sea from 1922.
British consular returns for Northern Irish people abroad from 1922.
War deaths 1939–48.
If you know when the event took place you can order certificates online. It is important to remember variant spellings, not least because many Irish names are English renderings (and sometimes quite arbitrary ones) of Gaelic names. Surnames may appear with or without the prefixes O’, Mc or Mac.
Irish civil registration for births 1865–74 and Protestant marriages 1847–64 are indexed on the Vital Records index (see here) on www.familysearch.org
CHANNEL ISLANDS
Alderney and Sark: Births and deaths from 1925 and marriages from 1919 are kept by the Clerk of the Court (Alderney) and the General Registrar (Sark). All other records are held on Guernsey.
Guernsey: Births and deaths from 1840 and marriages from 1919 are held by at Her Majesty’s Greffier. The indexes and records are available for public searching. Up to 1949, married women’s deaths were recorded under their maiden names. Occasionally, death certificates will give the maiden name of the mother. Copies of the 19th-century records are also at the Priaulx Library. Copies of the birth and death registers 1840–1907 and marriages 1840–1911, and indexes for births and marriages to 1966 and deaths to 1963 are at the SoG. During the German occupation 1940–45 a separate set of records was kept, and is now held at the General Register Office with copies at the SoG.
Jersey: Births, marriages and deaths from 1842 are kept by the Judicial Greffe. Only postal searches are possible, although copies of the indexes 1842–1900 are at the library of the Société Jersiaise and the Channel Islands Family History Society. Marriage certificates often give the spouses’ birthplaces.
ISLE OF MAN
Civil Registration of births and marriages started in 1849 and deaths in 1878, and was compulsory for births and deaths from 1878 and marriages from 1884. The records are kept by the Chief Registrar at the General Registry,
