Diss Family History Group

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Winfarthing Civil Registrations

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• The General Register Office (GRO) holds the national indexes to births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales, often called ‘Civil Registration’. The system started on 1 July 1837 as a result of the Births and Deaths Registration Act of 1836. Initially there were no penalties for failing to register and significant numbers, particularly births (up to 15%), were not registered. A new 1874 Act tightened up a lot of the things that were wrong with the original legislation, including compliance issues.
• Local registrars kept the records for their local areas (registration districts). They sent copies to the Registrar General for adding to the national register which was arranged by quarter (eg: January, February and March make up the March, or first, quarter) and then by surname.
• The indexes have limited information, the quarter and year, the volume and page number and the district in which the event was registered, sufficient to order a birth, marriage or death certificate. Each registration district covers many parishes, Depwade District having in excess of 50. Over the years these parishes may have changed as reorganisations have taken place. Depwade District was created on 1 July 1837 but was abolished on 1 April 2011 when it was added to the Norfolk registration district, and having sub-districts of Diss, Forncett, Harleston, and Stratton.
• Birth certificates usually show the date and place of birth, name and gender, names of parents (including mother’s maiden name), father’s occupation, name, description and address of informant, and the date of registration.
• Marriage certificates usually show the date and place of marriage, forenames and surnames of bride and groom, ages of bride and groom (some giving ‘full age’ meaning 21 or over), abode of bride and groom, father’s name and occupation for both bride and groom, and names of witnesses.
• Death certificates usually show the date and place of death, full name, age at death, occupation, cause of death, name, description and address of informant, and the date of registration.
• Using the information from the entries found or the national indexes, copies of birth, marriage and death certificate can be obtained from several sources, usually at a cost.
• Further information:
  • Family History
  • GenGuide
  • Wikipedia - General Register Office for England and Wales
  • Family Search
  • FreeBMD
  • Kent FHS - Introduction to civil registration
  • Researching family history using the GRO

Select registers for:
Births Marriages Deaths

• The transcribed entries where those where there was a Winfarthing parish record of a baptism (for births), marriage, or a burial (for death).
• 50 year periods: In some 50 year periods there are not entries for all the years.
• Parish/Archbishop records: Due to some of the poor quality originals for early records, the entries may be a combination of the two sources of information.
• Comments: In some records there are details shown between square brackets. These are ‘comments’ by the transcriber and are not from the original document - the comments are not guaranteed correct.