Jordan Civil Registration

Civil registration
Research use: Information can be used to compile pedigrees and family groups. Identifies parents, children and spouses and dates and places of vital events. Other relatives are often identified.

Record type: Births, marriages, deaths, divorces.

Time period: 1921-present. Early years only included Europeans. Registration of the general populous became compulsory in 1957.

Contents: Births: Child’s name, birth date and place, parents’ names, residence, and occupation; witnesses’ ages, relationships, residences. Marriages: Bride and groom names, ages, residences, occupations, marriage date and place, sometimes ages and/or birth dates and places, parents' names, residences, occupations; witnesses. Death registers: Name of deceased, age, death date and place, occupation, name of surviving spouse, informant’s name and residence, cause of death, sometimes birth date and place, parents’ names, children’s names.

Location: National Archives in Amman and local government offices.

Population coverage: Before 1957, 5%; after 1957, as high as 80%.

Reliability: Excellent.

Accessibility: By personal visit or correspondence.

Marriage contracts
Research use: These records are the only source prior to civil registration of specific marriage information and provide a marriage date. They also provide relationships helpful in lineage linking.

Record type: Legal contracts of marriage are the closest thing in Islamic society to marriage records. In Islamic tradition marriage is considered a legal contract between two families and is not considered a religious sacrament. Islamic law courts [sharia] handled the majority of litigation, particularly in the domain of personal and family status including marriage and divorce.

Time period: 1400-present.

Contents: Names of marriage candidates, dates of contract and marriage, parents (at least the father) of marital partners, details concerning dowry.

Location: At Islamic law court [sharia] archives in various cities.

Population coverage: As high as 75%; these records pertain to Muslim marriages only.

Reliability: Excellent.