Cornwall Civil Registration

Civil registration, which is the government recording of births, marriages, and deaths, was instituted in Cornwall at the same time as all of England, 1 July 1837. The act establishing civil registration required that births be reported within 42 days and deaths within 5 days of the event. Civil marriages could now be performed at the registrar's office, and those performed in the churches were registered by the ecclesiastical authority or representative quarterly. Copies of the registration were sent to the Office for National Statistics each quarter, and they are indexed by calendar quarter. A free index is available online at http://www.freebmd.org.uk/ but indexing on this site, particularly after about 1925, is incomplete. Copies of the certificates can be obtained through the district registrar's office or from the General Register office online at http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/.

The county is divided into registration districts, but there have been some changes in the jurisdictions over time, with some parishes now in different registration districts than they were originally found. Some districts have been renamed and altered.

The registration districts in Cornwall are as follows: Bodmin; Camelford; Camborne-Redruth (from Jun 1974); Falmouth; Helston (to Mar 1936); Isles of Scilly (from Jun 1901); Kerrier (from Jun 1936); Launceston; Liskeard; Penzance; Redruth (to Mar 1974); St Austell; St Columb (to Jun 1936); St Germans; Scilly Islands (to Mar 1901); Stratton; and Truro. In addition, there have at times been parishes or parts thereof in the following registration district in Devon: Holsworthy, Plympton St Mary, and Tavistock.