Heather wrote: > Just thought I would add another reason why you may not find an > event recorded in the GRO. Civil registration was brought in during > the latter half of 1837 and at first was not compulsory, so another > reason you may not find an event recorded. It was not made > compulsory until the law was changed to make it so in 1874. When it > was first introduced (1837) the registrar would travel around > visiting areas so that people could register an event. After the > new Act of 1874, the onus was then on the person to report the > event by visiting the registrar office themselves. Best regards That's an urban myth :)) Registration was always compulsory from 1 July 1837 onwards. Governments do daft things on quite a regular basis but they would not enact a law for something that was voluntary. What changed was the onus for the registration of births from the registrar who had to find the newborns to the parents. If the registrat didn't find the parents, then the parents were supposed to find the registrar. Marriages have been been registered for considerably longer. Deaths also had to be registered because burials weren't supposed to take place without the production of same although there are many instances when that didn't happen or when a coroner released a body for burial before the death was registered.