Pakistan Civil Registration - Vital Records

If your ancestors were born in Pakistan, the records will be located at the National Archives of Pakistan at http://www.pakistan.gov.pk/divisions/ContentInfo.jsp?DivID=13&amp;cPath=118_123&amp;ContentID=2524. However, the reporting of births is not compulsory so the records may be sporadic.

Unfortunately there was also a fire in the central repository in Pakistan in 1948, when lots of the civil documents were lost. To see if there are any surviving records of your family, you need to contact the Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths in the municipality from which you think your ancestors came. It's worth remembering that there are often variations in the spellings and combinations of names.

From time to time, births were reported in local newspapers, some of which are held at the National Archives of Pakistan. However, in many cases these only give an approximate year of birth.

Marriage records also vary but Muslims are required to register marriage with the Nikah Registrar. Any copies of the certificate, known as the Nikah Nama, will be in Urdu. Marriage records are held with the local registrar in Pakistan.

The Church of Latter Day Saints has microfilmed some Islamic marriage records, including those of Meerut from 1881-1982 and Bulandshahr from 1921-1955. Search the online database to locate these.
 * http://www.familysearch.org

Further details on tracing these documents and others can be found on "Moving Here."
 * http://www.movinghere.org.uk/galleries/roots/asian/asian.htm

Web Sites

 * http://www.statpak.gov.pk/depts/fbs/statistics/pds2003/pds2003.html
 * http://www.censusindia.net