Rosemary - that only applied to birth registrations. Although all births, marriages and deaths had to be registered in the early days the onus was on the registrar to seek out new births so many were missed. However, there wasn't the same problem with marriages, registration for which the church minister was responsible, and burials could not take place without a certificate. There was no penalty for the non-registration of births until 1875. Ruth Sent from my iPad > On 6 Dec 2015, at 17:35, Rosemary Jones via <[email protected]> wrote: > > In the early years of civil registration a lot of people didn't register at > all. It's pretty hit or miss, particularly in 1837. As time went by more > people registered and I think sometime in the 1870's it was mandatory. > > Rosemary > >