Papua New Guinea Civil Registration

''Pacific Papua New Guinea

Civil Registration
Research use: Information can be used to compile pedigrees and family groups and to perform temple ordinances. 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: 1884-present. Prior to 1967 most entries are for non-natives. Records for the Territory of (German) New Guinea were destroyed during the Second World War, however, reconstructed registers were compiled afterwards. The available records have been indexed. 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 and officer who performed ceremony; former spouses. 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 and local civil registry offices.

Population coverage: Before 1967, 5%; after 1967, 80%.

Reliability: Excellent.