Senegal Civil Registration

Historical Background
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Coverage and Compliance

 * 1730 to present

Information Recorded in the Records
Contents: Births - name, birth date, parents, father’s occupation and residence, sometimes age of mother, names of witnesses and their residences, occupations, and sometimes relationships. Marriages - names of bride and groom, residence, date of marriage, sometimes ages and names of parents or sponsors. Death - name, date of death and burial, age, residence at the time of death, occupation, cause of death.

Location: Registration offices in Dakar, St. Louis, and other major cities in Senegal. For the Gambia, Oral History and Antiquities Division in Banjul. Copies of much of the civil registration for Senegal during this time period is in Paris in the Archives Nationales, Section Outre-Mer.

Population coverage: Estimated to be 90% of the French and British colonial population and about 50% of the African population of Senegal and the Gambia.

Reliability: Good.

Note: * The 1730 date is based on the record listing completed in the national archives in 1983.