Modernisation of UK Civil Registration.

The Federation of Family History Societies (FFHSs) has been negotiating with UK, GRO over improvements which, in future, will benefit all family historians.

Once the new computerised Civil Registration indexes are available, all records in the indexes from the September quarter of 1837 onwards (the start of Civil Registration in England and Wales) will include:
(a) age at death for deaths (currently included only from the January quarter of 1866);
(b) mother’s maiden name for births (currently included only from September quarter of 1911);
(c) surname of the other party for marriages (currently included only from the January quarter of 1912).

Alongside this, the Digitisation of Vital Events (DoVE) Project is computerising the records of previous registrations. The first in a series of News Bulletins can be read on the GRO web site at
http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/aboutus/lookingahead/Digitisation_of_Vital_Events.asp