pre 1837 birth information

[kerrie]

Could someone please tell me if birth certifiactes are available for between 1800 and 1810, if not what sort of information is available for the parents and their origin of a child born at that time.

Is there anywhere where these certificates/records can be looked at other than in Jersey.

[jeeb]

Hi Kerrie,
With regards to pre 1837 certificates, basically there aren't any. Civil registration began in England & Wales July 1837 when all Births, Marriages and Deaths were supposed to be recorded. In practice though this was not enforced law until about 1874 and pre that it was the job of the registrar to collect the information, need less to say many 'escaped'.
The new style parish registers which are still in use today came into being in 1813 and these registers required the name of child, parents Christian and Surnames, abode and father's occupation. The problem here of course was that it was not a requirement by law to baptise a child. Pre 1813, including the years your inquired about, I'm afraid it was very much down to the clerk of the day how much information was given in the parish registers. Generally speaking and that is all I can do because there are so many exceptions, is to say that after about 1750 both parents names will be given, eg John the son of William Brown and Mary his wife was baptised. Between 1700 & 1750 most cases will mention the mother. During the 17th century it often happens that just the father is given, eg John son of William Brown was baptised and in the early years of parish registers ie 1539 to 1600 it will just say, eg John Brown was baptised. This is only a very general rule but the further back in time the less the information is likely to be. I know this is only a generalisation so please folks don't start bombarding me with the exceptions!
Jeremy

[kerrie]

Thank you for taking the time to reply to me, Jeremy. IF I could ask just one more question, does this also apply to Jersey? The reason that I ask is that I have some birth certificates from Jersey and they do not appear on the same form as the ones that I have from England.

Thanks for your time

Kerrie

[jeeb]

Hi Kerrie,
I have never done personal research into a Jersey family so there may well be somebody else on this forum in a better position to answer your query.
What I can tell you is that Civil Registration did not start in Jersey until 1842. There is no central index like there is for mainland England and Wales. The 1842 -1900 Registrar's indices for each parish can be looked at at the 'Societe Jeriaise'. If you want a certificate I believe you are given the choice of French or English. I believe most, if not all parish registers pre 1842 for Jersey are now indexed and most start mid to late 16th century. I think a few of the earlier years may still be in the process of being indexed. I hope that makes things a little clearer.
Jeremy

[uksearch]

I think that there maybe some French influence here,take a look at the following link.It may help.

http://user.itl.net/~glen/genukici.html (http://user.itl.net/~glen/genukici.html)

UK