County Councils only took over responsibility for Registration of BMDs in 1930, under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1929. Before that date the responsibility lay with the Poor Law Unions. I'll admit that I don't know if the Registration Service was separately funded or administered by Central Government, but would suspect that the Unions were supplied with a precept and would have been semi-autonomous - but subject to regular audits/inspections from Head Office. That said, there'd be nothing to prevent an ambitious Registrar transferring from one Union to another. Gus which had ----- Original Message ----- From: "Donald Massey" <donaldmasseyuk@yahoo.com> To: <BEDFORD-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2006 8:45 PM Subject: Re: [BDF] Preston of Bedford Just as a point, Registrars were, and most still are, employees of the local authority, usual a county council, rather than central government, and any decision to move is therefore their own, and can involve changing employer (although usually continuity of terms of employment, benefits, etc). Donald Massey ----- Original Message ----- From: "Edward RICHARDSON" <ge35@dial.pipex.com> > . > Wrong area, but as a civil servant, maybe they moved around? ==== BEDFORD Mailing List ==== Go to the Bedfordshire Lookup Exchange at: http://freespace.virgin.net/m.harbach/bdf.html