Q. I have been tracing my family tree for many years. I want to look at the years before Civil Registration began and was wondering where I find records dated before 1837?
A. If you have managed to trace your family tree further back than 1837, Parish registers of baptism, marriages and burials dating back to the 16th Century are a useful source of information. These records may be held by the local Archive Service.
Q. I have been comparing three generations of birth certificates (my daughter’s, born 1990; mine, born 1958 and my mother’s, born 1933), and only my daughter’s certificate shows ‘mother’s occupation’, yet I know that my mother was in employment when I was born. I notice that on all three certificates the father’s occupation is registered. Why not the mother’s?
A. That is because a mother’s occupation wasn’t required in birth registrations until approximately 1984.
In some registrations the occupation is recorded next to the mother’s name and in later registrations there is a separate box (space 8b) where the occupation is recorded. Father’s occupation has always been recorded.
Q. I am researching my family history and have received a birth certificate with the time recorded after the date of birth. Why is it that on all the other certificates I have purchased a time is not recorded?
A. A time is only recorded in a birth registration when there has been a multiple birth. It looks like you may have uncovered either twins or triplets in your family!
Q. When I go to my local Register Office for genealogy purposes and provide them with a ‘volume’ and ‘page number’ which is given on websites such as the St Catherine’s index, I am told this is of no use to them when locating a particular register. What does the volume and page number refer to?
A. The volume and page number refer to registers held at General Register Office where records for the whole of England and Wales are kept. This is based in Southport.
Local Register Offices only hold records for a particular district and are therefore numbered and indexed locally.
Huddersfield Register Office is based at Huddersfield Town Hall. Phone 01484 221030 for more details.
