Civil registry
Encyclopedia
Civil registration is the system by which a government
records the vital events of its citizens and residents. The resulting repository or database
is called civil register or registry, or population registry. The primary purpose of civil registration is to create legal document
s that are used to establish and protect the civil rights
of individuals. A secondary purpose is to create a data source for the compilation of vital statistics
. In most countries, there is a legal requirement to notify the relevant authority of any life event which affects the registry.
The United Nations
defines civil registration as "the continuous, permanent, compulsory and universal recording of the occurrence and characteristics of vital events pertaining to the population as provided through decree
or regulation
in accordance with the legal requirements of a country. Civil registration is carried out primarily for the purpose of establishing the legal documents provided by the law. These records are also a main source of vital statistics. Complete coverage, accuracy and timeliness of civil registration are essential for quality vital statistics.
Vital events that are typically recorded include live birth
, death
, foetal death
, marriage
, divorce
, annulment of marriage, judicial separation of marriage
, adoption
, legitimization
and recognition. Additionally, in some countries, immigration
, emigration
, and any change of residence may require notification. Among the legal documents that are derived from civil registration are birth certificate
s, death certificate
s, and marriage certificate
s.
civil registrations are carried out and held by individual states. Tasmania
began theirs in 1838, South Australia
and Western Australia
both in 1842, Victoria
in 1854, Queensland
and New South Wales
in 1856, Northern Territory
in 1870 and Australian Capital Territory
in 1911. Because early civil registration often involved the churches, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish whether early records are civil or church records. From 1856 civil registration was carried out by government employees and was independent of the church. Information recorded in records varies from state to state. Most states call the appropriate central registry for the state the Office of the Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages. In South Australia it is the Principal Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages and in Victoria it is the Government Statist Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
But later after, persons who were born in the 1960s or before, if they asked for copies in an office, they had the same hand copy they registered at first, just in the final part, the judge established the new date of issue and the place of.
In the 1980s and 1990s, copies were written by typewriter, but only with capital letters and in the same green-security paper.
Now, all the copies (from people born before and after 1960s) are standardized in brown-security paper and are typed automatically by a computer, they have already issued the CURP, (national identification number in Mexico) and specific dates of issuing.
, maintaining the civil registry (Gemeentelijke basisadministratie) is the duty of the municipalities.
Before the French Rule, the Netherlands did not have a central registration of its population, which was introduced in some part of the country in 1796 by the French. In 1811, this registration was introduced throughout the country. The Dutch differentiate between the Gemeentelijke basisadministratie, an ongoing database of citizens' information, and the Burgerlijke Stand, which is a collection (at the municipal level) of documents evidencing certain events taking place in a given municipality, such as birth, marriage, civil union
, and death.
Beginning on 1 January 1850, municipalities were obliged to keep citizen's records in bookform. Early in the twentieth century this system was replaced by a card system that registered families. The move toward individual registration took place in 1939 with the introduction of the persoonskaart, a single card registering a single individual, kept in the municipality. Information gathered on this card included family name, first names, gender, position within the family, date and place of birth, marital status, address, and church affiliation, besides information on when a person entered and left a municipality.
In 1940, the Dutch government did not want to mandate citizen's identification, but during World War II
the German occupying government mandated it so they could assess who was to be sent to Germany as forced labor and to select Jewish citizens from the general population. When the war was over, mandatory identification was done away with.
In the 1990s all local registries were automated, and starting on 1 October 1994 the individual registration card was replaced with a digital list containing a person's information as collected by the Gemeentelijke basisadministratie van persoonsgegevens, kept and maintained at the municipal level. Municipalities exchange information through a closed network at the end of each day to a nationwide database, which can be consulted by officials online. Though it was generally considered "un-Dutch," in 1 January 2005 mandatory identification was reintroduced for everyone over 14; official identification is to be presented for all important transactions between citizens and government.
; any Home Affairs office can record a vital event or issue a certified copy of a vital record.
(Skatteverket); up into the 1990s the Church of Sweden
was responsible. Recording of births and deaths was stipulated in the early 17th century, formal national census
es have been made since the mid-18th century, and Sweden has one of the longest and most comprehensive suites of civil records of any country.
, mandatory civil registration of births, marriages, and deaths in England and Wales
was introduced on 1 July 1837. Initially the onus lay on registrars to discover and record events. Subsequent legislation introduced similar systems in Ireland
(all of which was then part of the United Kingdom), and Scotland
.
The administration of individual registration district
s is the responsibility of registrars in the relevant local authority. There is also a national body for each jurisdiction
. The local offices are generally responsible both for maintaining the original registers and for providing copies to the national body for central retention. A superintendent registrar facilitates the legal preliminaries to marriage, conducts civil marriage ceremonies and retains in his/her custody all completed birth, death and marriage registers for the district. The office of the superintendent registrar
is the district Register office
, often referred to (informally) in the media as the "Registry office" .
Today, both officers may also conduct statutory civil partnership preliminaries and ceremonies, citizenship ceremonies and other non statutory ceremonies such as naming or renewal of vows. Certified copies of the entries made by the registrars over the years are issued on a daily basis either for genealogical research or for modern legal purposes such as supporting passport applications or ensuring eligibility for the appropriate junior sports leagues.
On 1 December 2007 Registrars and Superintendent Registrars became employees of their local authority for the first time following the enactment of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007
.
Marriages are registered at the time of the ceremony by either (1) the officiating minister of the Church of England
or the Church in Wales
, (2) an Authorised Person at a Registered Building
, religious, or (3) a registrar at a Register Office
, Registered Building
or Approved Premise.
The official registers are not directly accessible by the general public. Instead, indexes are made available which can be used to find the relevant register entry and then request a certified copy of the details. Increasingly local indexes are being published on the internet, for example: http://www.nebmd.co.uk
The General Register Office
—now merged into the Office for National Statistics
— has overall responsibility for registration administration.
on January 1, 1855. A significant difference from the English system is the greater detail required for a registration. This means that if a certified copy of an entry is requested, it will contain much more information.
The General Register Office for Scotland
has overall responsibility for registration administration and drafting legislative changes in this area (as well as census data). They are governed by the Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Scotland) Act 1965
and subsequent legislation (responsibility for which has now been devolved to the Scottish Parliament
).
s are maintained by the Office of Vital Statistics or Office of Vital Records in each individual state. Other documents such as deed
s, mortgage documents, name change
documents, and divorce records
, as well as marriage certificates for those states not centralizing these records, are maintained by the Clerk of Court of each individual county
. However, the term 'civil registry' is not used.
Republic of Ireland
United Kingdom
United States
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
records the vital events of its citizens and residents. The resulting repository or database
Database
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
is called civil register or registry, or population registry. The primary purpose of civil registration is to create legal document
Document
The term document has multiple meanings in ordinary language and in scholarship. WordNet 3.1. lists four meanings :* document, written document, papers...
s that are used to establish and protect the civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
of individuals. A secondary purpose is to create a data source for the compilation of vital statistics
Vital statistics
Vital statistics are the information maintained by a government, recording the birth and death of individuals within that government's jurisdiction. These data are used by public health programs to evaluate how effective their programs are...
. In most countries, there is a legal requirement to notify the relevant authority of any life event which affects the registry.
The United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
defines civil registration as "the continuous, permanent, compulsory and universal recording of the occurrence and characteristics of vital events pertaining to the population as provided through decree
Decree
A decree is a rule of law issued by a head of state , according to certain procedures . It has the force of law...
or regulation
Regulation
Regulation is administrative legislation that constitutes or constrains rights and allocates responsibilities. It can be distinguished from primary legislation on the one hand and judge-made law on the other...
in accordance with the legal requirements of a country. Civil registration is carried out primarily for the purpose of establishing the legal documents provided by the law. These records are also a main source of vital statistics. Complete coverage, accuracy and timeliness of civil registration are essential for quality vital statistics.
Vital events that are typically recorded include live birth
Birth
Birth is the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring. The offspring is brought forth from the mother. The time of human birth is defined as the time at which the fetus comes out of the mother's womb into the world...
, death
Death
Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
, foetal death
Stillbirth
A stillbirth occurs when a fetus has died in the uterus. The Australian definition specifies that fetal death is termed a stillbirth after 20 weeks gestation or the fetus weighs more than . Once the fetus has died the mother still has contractions and remains undelivered. The term is often used in...
, marriage
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
, divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
, annulment of marriage, judicial separation of marriage
Legal separation
Legal separation is a legal process by which a married couple may formalize a de facto separation while remaining legally married. A legal separation is granted in the form of a court order, which can be in the form of a legally binding consent decree...
, adoption
Adoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
, legitimization
Legitimation
Legitimation or legitimization is the act of providing legitimacy. Legitimation in the social sciences refers to the process whereby an act, process, or ideology becomes legitimate by its attachment to norms and values within in given society...
and recognition. Additionally, in some countries, immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
, emigration
Emigration
Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state is termed migration. There are many reasons why people...
, and any change of residence may require notification. Among the legal documents that are derived from civil registration are birth certificate
Birth certificate
A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a child. The term "birth certificate" can refer to either the original document certifying the circumstances of the birth or to a certified copy of or representation of the ensuing registration of that birth...
s, death certificate
Death certificate
The phrase death certificate can describe either a document issued by a medical practitioner certifying the deceased state of a person or popularly to a document issued by a person such as a registrar of vital statistics that declares the date, location and cause of a person's death as later...
s, and marriage certificate
Marriage certificate
In some jurisdictions a marriage certificate is the official record that two people have undertaken a marriage ceremony. This does include jurisdictions where marriage licenses do not exist...
s.
Australia
In AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
civil registrations are carried out and held by individual states. Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
began theirs in 1838, South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
and Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
both in 1842, Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
in 1854, Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
and New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
in 1856, Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
in 1870 and Australian Capital Territory
Australian Capital Territory
The Australian Capital Territory, often abbreviated ACT, is the capital territory of the Commonwealth of Australia and is the smallest self-governing internal territory...
in 1911. Because early civil registration often involved the churches, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish whether early records are civil or church records. From 1856 civil registration was carried out by government employees and was independent of the church. Information recorded in records varies from state to state. Most states call the appropriate central registry for the state the Office of the Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages. In South Australia it is the Principal Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages and in Victoria it is the Government Statist Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
Mexico
In Mexico, vital records (birth, death and marriage certificates) are registered in offices named Registro Civil (Civil Registry of Mexico). Each state has its own registration format, but is often standardized if copies are asked at Central Office in Mexico City. In the past decades (until the 1960s), birth certificates were written by hand, on a styled-curive calligraphy (almost incomprehensible by the new generations)and typically issued on green-security paper. After the 1960s, the format in Mexico City didn't change at all, except for instead hand calligraphy, they were issued on typewriter.But later after, persons who were born in the 1960s or before, if they asked for copies in an office, they had the same hand copy they registered at first, just in the final part, the judge established the new date of issue and the place of.
In the 1980s and 1990s, copies were written by typewriter, but only with capital letters and in the same green-security paper.
Now, all the copies (from people born before and after 1960s) are standardized in brown-security paper and are typed automatically by a computer, they have already issued the CURP, (national identification number in Mexico) and specific dates of issuing.
Netherlands
In the NetherlandsNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, maintaining the civil registry (Gemeentelijke basisadministratie) is the duty of the municipalities.
Before the French Rule, the Netherlands did not have a central registration of its population, which was introduced in some part of the country in 1796 by the French. In 1811, this registration was introduced throughout the country. The Dutch differentiate between the Gemeentelijke basisadministratie, an ongoing database of citizens' information, and the Burgerlijke Stand, which is a collection (at the municipal level) of documents evidencing certain events taking place in a given municipality, such as birth, marriage, civil union
Civil union
A civil union, also referred to as a civil partnership, is a legally recognized form of partnership similar to marriage. Beginning with Denmark in 1989, civil unions under one name or another have been established by law in many developed countries in order to provide same-sex couples rights,...
, and death.
Beginning on 1 January 1850, municipalities were obliged to keep citizen's records in bookform. Early in the twentieth century this system was replaced by a card system that registered families. The move toward individual registration took place in 1939 with the introduction of the persoonskaart, a single card registering a single individual, kept in the municipality. Information gathered on this card included family name, first names, gender, position within the family, date and place of birth, marital status, address, and church affiliation, besides information on when a person entered and left a municipality.
In 1940, the Dutch government did not want to mandate citizen's identification, but during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
the German occupying government mandated it so they could assess who was to be sent to Germany as forced labor and to select Jewish citizens from the general population. When the war was over, mandatory identification was done away with.
In the 1990s all local registries were automated, and starting on 1 October 1994 the individual registration card was replaced with a digital list containing a person's information as collected by the Gemeentelijke basisadministratie van persoonsgegevens, kept and maintained at the municipal level. Municipalities exchange information through a closed network at the end of each day to a nationwide database, which can be consulted by officials online. Though it was generally considered "un-Dutch," in 1 January 2005 mandatory identification was reintroduced for everyone over 14; official identification is to be presented for all important transactions between citizens and government.
South Africa
In South Africa, vital records are maintained by the national Department of Home AffairsSouth African Department of Home Affairs
The Department of Home Affairs is a department of the South African government.- Duties :The department is responsible for:* Maintenance of the National Population Register , including the recording of births, marriages/civil partnerships and deaths.* Issuing identity documents and passports.*...
; any Home Affairs office can record a vital event or issue a certified copy of a vital record.
Sweden
In Sweden, the civil registry is maintained by the Swedish Tax AgencySwedish Tax Agency
The Swedish Tax Agency is a government agency in Sweden responsible for national tax collection and administering the population registration....
(Skatteverket); up into the 1990s the Church of Sweden
Church of Sweden
The Church of Sweden is the largest Christian church in Sweden. The church professes the Lutheran faith and is a member of the Porvoo Communion. With 6,589,769 baptized members, it is the largest Lutheran church in the world, although combined, there are more Lutherans in the member churches of...
was responsible. Recording of births and deaths was stipulated in the early 17th century, formal national census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
es have been made since the mid-18th century, and Sweden has one of the longest and most comprehensive suites of civil records of any country.
United Kingdom
In the United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, mandatory civil registration of births, marriages, and deaths in England and Wales
England and Wales
England and Wales is a jurisdiction within the United Kingdom. It consists of England and Wales, two of the four countries of the United Kingdom...
was introduced on 1 July 1837. Initially the onus lay on registrars to discover and record events. Subsequent legislation introduced similar systems in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
(all of which was then part of the United Kingdom), and Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
The administration of individual registration district
Registration district
A registration district in the United Kingdom is a type of administrative region which exists for the purpose of civil registration of births, marriages, and deaths and civil partnerships...
s is the responsibility of registrars in the relevant local authority. There is also a national body for each jurisdiction
Jurisdiction
Jurisdiction is the practical authority granted to a formally constituted legal body or to a political leader to deal with and make pronouncements on legal matters and, by implication, to administer justice within a defined area of responsibility...
. The local offices are generally responsible both for maintaining the original registers and for providing copies to the national body for central retention. A superintendent registrar facilitates the legal preliminaries to marriage, conducts civil marriage ceremonies and retains in his/her custody all completed birth, death and marriage registers for the district. The office of the superintendent registrar
Superintendent registrar
The superintendent registrar is a statutory officer of the vital registration service in England and Wales. The Register Office in any location is the office of the Superintendent Registrar who has legal custody of all the birth, marriage and death registers for the local district, is responsible...
is the district Register office
Register office
A register office is a British term for a civil registry, a government office and depository where births, deaths and marriages are officially recorded and where you can get officially married, without a religious ceremony...
, often referred to (informally) in the media as the "Registry office" .
Today, both officers may also conduct statutory civil partnership preliminaries and ceremonies, citizenship ceremonies and other non statutory ceremonies such as naming or renewal of vows. Certified copies of the entries made by the registrars over the years are issued on a daily basis either for genealogical research or for modern legal purposes such as supporting passport applications or ensuring eligibility for the appropriate junior sports leagues.
On 1 December 2007 Registrars and Superintendent Registrars became employees of their local authority for the first time following the enactment of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007
Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007
The Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which established the UK Statistics Authority . It came into force in April 2008. Sir Michael Scholar was appointed as the first Chair of the UKSA....
.
England and Wales
Births in England and Wales must be registered within 42 days, whilst deaths must be registered within 5 days unless an inquest is called or a post mortem is held.Marriages are registered at the time of the ceremony by either (1) the officiating minister of the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
or the Church in Wales
Church in Wales
The Church in Wales is the Anglican church in Wales, composed of six dioceses.As with the primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Archbishop of Wales serves concurrently as one of the six diocesan bishops. The current archbishop is Barry Morgan, the Bishop of Llandaff.In contrast to the...
, (2) an Authorised Person at a Registered Building
Registered Building
In England and Wales a religious building of a denomination other than the Church of England or the Church in Wales can be certified by the Registrar General as a place of worship and subsequently registered by the Registrar General for the solemnisation of religious marriage...
, religious, or (3) a registrar at a Register Office
Register office
A register office is a British term for a civil registry, a government office and depository where births, deaths and marriages are officially recorded and where you can get officially married, without a religious ceremony...
, Registered Building
Registered Building
In England and Wales a religious building of a denomination other than the Church of England or the Church in Wales can be certified by the Registrar General as a place of worship and subsequently registered by the Registrar General for the solemnisation of religious marriage...
or Approved Premise.
The official registers are not directly accessible by the general public. Instead, indexes are made available which can be used to find the relevant register entry and then request a certified copy of the details. Increasingly local indexes are being published on the internet, for example: http://www.nebmd.co.uk
The General Register Office
General Register Office
The General Register Office for England and Wales is the section of the UK Identity and Passport Service responsible for the civil registration of births , adoptions, marriages, civil partnerships and deaths in England and Wales and for those same events outwith the UK if they involve a UK citizen...
—now merged into the Office for National Statistics
Office for National Statistics
The Office for National Statistics is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom.- Overview :...
— has overall responsibility for registration administration.
Scotland
Civil registration came into force in ScotlandScotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
on January 1, 1855. A significant difference from the English system is the greater detail required for a registration. This means that if a certified copy of an entry is requested, it will contain much more information.
The General Register Office for Scotland
General Register Office for Scotland
The General Register Office for Scotland was a non-ministerial directorate of the Scottish Government that administered the registration of births, deaths, marriages, divorces and adoptions in Scotland. It was also responsible for the statutes relating to the formalities of marriage and conduct...
has overall responsibility for registration administration and drafting legislative changes in this area (as well as census data). They are governed by the Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Scotland) Act 1965
Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Scotland) Act 1965
The Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages Act 1965, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which amended the existing legislation controlling the registration system of births, deaths and marriages in Scotland founded in 1855...
and subsequent legislation (responsibility for which has now been devolved to the Scottish Parliament
Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...
).
United States
In the United States, vital records such as birth certificates, death certificates, and frequently marriage certificateMarriage certificate
In some jurisdictions a marriage certificate is the official record that two people have undertaken a marriage ceremony. This does include jurisdictions where marriage licenses do not exist...
s are maintained by the Office of Vital Statistics or Office of Vital Records in each individual state. Other documents such as deed
Deed
A deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, or affirms or confirms something which passes, an interest, right, or property and that is signed, attested, delivered, and in some jurisdictions sealed...
s, mortgage documents, name change
Name change
Name change generally refers to a legal act allowing a person to adopt a name different than their name at birth, marriage, or adoption. The procedures and ease of a name change depend on the jurisdiction. In general, common law jurisdictions have loose limitations on name changes while civil law...
documents, and divorce records
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
, as well as marriage certificates for those states not centralizing these records, are maintained by the Clerk of Court of each individual county
County (United States)
In the United States, a county is a geographic subdivision of a state , usually assigned some governmental authority. The term "county" is used in 48 of the 50 states; Louisiana is divided into parishes and Alaska into boroughs. Parishes and boroughs are called "county-equivalents" by the U.S...
. However, the term 'civil registry' is not used.
External links
AustraliaRepublic of Ireland
United Kingdom
- General Register Office (England and Wales)
- General Register Office for Scotland
- General Register Office Northern Ireland
United States