Birth, Death & Marriage Certificates and Family History
Last updated: 18/06/2009
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Cornwall Registration Service Can Help You
Getting a Copy Certificate
You can complete an application by downloading one of
the forms below, collecting one from any Register Office,
or sending a letter giving the details. If the entry is
traced, the information can only be supplied in the form of a
certificate for which a fee is charged. You can pay by
credit/debit card details using the downloadable forms (see below)
or applications should be accompanied with a fee (cheques/postal
orders payable to Cornwall Council). If the entry is
not found a full refund is made.
Application
for Marriage Certificate (pdf format)
Application
for Birth Certificate (pdf format)
Application
for Death Certificate (pdf format)
nb. Please ensure cheques/postal
orders are payable to Cornwall Council.
Family History
Family Trees - From 1st July 1837
The Registration Service has custody of registers that recorded
births, deaths and marriages occurring in Cornwall since July 1837
when civil registration was introduced.
The service had eleven Registration Districts, but from 1st May
2007, the Districts were abolished and one District was created for
the whole county. The Service also holds registers for both civil
marriages and non-conformist chapels, Church of England, meeting
houses, Jewish marriages and other religious buildings where
marriages have taken place. Within each district the parishes
are usually divided into a number of sub-districts
Getting Started
If you want to compile a family tree you can do so by making an
application to Certificate Applications (Registration), PO Box 94,
Truro, TR1 9AZ to enable the Superintendent to undertake a search
of the records.
The records are, however, concerned with individual events and
not with pedigrees. It may therefore be necessary to make a
series of searches to trace the lines of descent back to
1837. For example, if you wish to trace the record of your
father's birth, but do not know when he was born, it may be
necessary first to search for the record of your parents' marriage
(working backwards from the date of birth of the eldest child in
your family). A certificate of the marriage should give your
father's age and the name of his father, and so provide a starting
point for tracing and identifying the record of his birth. A
certificate of that birth will give the names of his parents
including the mother's maiden surname, and the process may be
repeated for the preceding generation.
Information you need to provide in your
application
To help us trace entries in registers there are indexes that
alphabetically sort the registers by name, year and
sub-district. If you know the district in which the event
occurred, the names of those involved and the date of the event
(month and year or just year), it should be possible for us to find
that entry in the register. The Superintendent Registrar will
make a search two years each side of the date you have supplied
even if your information is not complete, but we do not have the
resources to make wider searches.
National Index
The Office for National Statistics
(ONS) hold a national, central register of birth, deaths and
marriages dating back to 1837. The national index references
(formerly known as St Catherine's House index) are different from
those used in Register Offices so quoting their reference on an
application to a Register Office is of no help. However, they
do confirm that the event occurred in a particular registration
district, although the sub-district is not indicated. It is
very helpful for marriages in particular therefore to have a
connection to a place, parish or religious denomination.
Sources of Records before 1st July 1837
Before 1st July 1837, the principal means of recording births
(or baptisms), marriages and deaths (or burials) were parish
registers kept by clergymen of the Church of England. The
best way to trace them is to get in touch with the County
Archivist, Cornwall Record Office, Old County Hall,
Truro. The County Archivist also holds a number of other
records useful in researching family history, including Methodist
registers of baptisms, marriages and burials.
Cornwall Family History Society
also has a wide range of indexes, census records and other material
as well as a comprehensive store of local and background
information.
If you are new to genealogy, interested in background
information, or pursuing a complicated link, there are many on-line
guides for researching Family History in the United Kingdom (see
links to the right of this page).
All local authorities hold records for their administrative
area.
We hope that you have much success and enjoyment in your
research and we look forward to helping you to achieve your
aims.