Civil Registration

Reference Centre, Quick Reference Charts

Civil Registration - Scotland

Registration of all events commences 1 January 1855

See "How to Obtain" below chart

Name of Individual			1855 only reports date, time and place of death, deceased's name, sex, marital status, age and occupation, cause of death, duration of last illness, doctor's name and details of the informant. In addition, they show the usual residence, the deceased's place of birth, spouse's name, parents' names, occupations and whether they were deceased, names and ages of children or age and year of death if the child pre-deceased the parent.	Available at an LDS Family History Centre are: 1. Annual BMD indexes on microfilm from 1855 to 1956; and, 2. Births and Marriages - 1855 to 1875 are indexed on familysearch.org. See Scotland Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950 and Scotland Marriage, 1561-1910 Note: The indexing on FamilySearch may not be 100% complete. Scotland BMD Exchange has approximately 91,000 record extracts free to search online but this is based on submissions to the site only and not on transcribers routinely transcribing the indices. Full availability for searching can be found on the official government web site Scotland's People. Scotland's People is a subscription site so you may be interested to read my review of it before signing up.
Marital Status		1855 shows details of other marriages of the bride and groom as well as names of bride and groom's children and birthplaces of bride and groom	In 1855 name of current and previous spouses but removed until 1861 when name of spouse was again reported on certificate.
Age
Occupation
Date of Event			including time of death; cause of death plus duration of illness
Place of Event			Up to 1861 burial place was also recorded
Name of Father	Plus on 1855 his age is reported
Father's Occupation
If Father Living
Place of birth of Father	Exception 1855 only, birthplace was reported
Name of Mother	Plus on 1855 her age is reported
Maiden Surname of Mother
Mother's Occupation
If Mother Living	Exception 1855 only, birthplace was reported
Place of birth of Mother
Witnesses			being the name of the medical attendant. Up to 1860, the place of burial, the name of the undertaker and when the doctor last saw the deceased alive, were also included.
Relationship of Witnesses to Individual
Addresses of Witnesses
Name of Informant of Event
Relationship of Informant to Individual
Address of Informant
Changes to Information on certificates	1855 includes earlier children born to parents 1860 onwards includes date of parent's marriage Online access to images is restricted to those over 100 years old for births, 75 years for marriages and 50 years for deaths. 1915-2013 births searchable online for this time period but certificate must be ordered as it cannot be viewed online due to privacy restrictions. Register of Corrected Entries searchable and viewable online for the period 1855-1961. If the child was illegitimate, the father's name is not recorded on the certificate unless he gave his permission and acknowledged the child. In that case, the child may be registered under the father's surname and the word "illegitimate" appears after the name of the child. Information on stillbirths is not available online. A Register of Stillbirths was kept by the National Records of Scotland from 1939, but is not open to the public. Extracts from the register may be issued by the National Records of Scotland only in exceptional circumstances. Neglected entries of births cover the period from about 1820 to 1860 and were registered between 1860 and 1868. They are on one roll of microfilm (Family History Library, film #103538).	As of 1972 birthplaces of bride and groom are reported. 1938-2013 marriages searchable online for this time period but certificate must be ordered as it cannot be viewed online due to privacy restrictions. Neglected entries of marriages cover the period from about 1820 to 1860 and were registered between 1860 and 1868. They are on one roll of microfilm (Family History Library, film #103538).	1855-1864 death indexes for females are arranged alphabetically by her married surname with her maiden surname in parentheses. 1864 onwards death indexes list women under both their maiden and married surnames. 1965-2013 deaths searchable online for this time period but certificate must be ordered as it cannot be viewed online due to privacy restrictions. Neglected entries of deaths cover the period from about 1820 to 1860 and were registered between 1860 and 1868. They are on one roll of microfilm (Family History Library, film #103538).

How to Obtain

Online:
Scotland's People

In person:
The Scotland's People Centre is the official government resource for family history research providing access to the civil birth, death, marriage registrations among many other documents. The Centre is located in central Edinburgh with search rooms in historic General Register House and New Register House. It is advised to pre-book an appointment by either telephone: 0131 314 4300 between 09:00 and 12:30 or 13:30 and 16:30 (Monday to Friday); online booking facility or by email to: enquiries@scotlandspeoplehub.gov.uk.

By Telephone:
Fee for Extract Ordering Service for post-1855 births, deaths and marriages is £15 per certificate. You will need to have a valid credit or debit card with which to complete your order. If order by fax printout, complete and fax SU3 form with your request.

Telephone: 0131 314 4411 (+44 131 314 4411)
Fax: +44 131 314 4400
Monday to Friday 9:00 to 16:30 except for certain public holidays.

By e-mail:
records@gro-scotland.gsi.gov.uk

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