Cornwall Civil Registration

Civil registration, which is the government recording of births, marriages, and deaths, was instituted in Cornwall at the same time as all of England, 1 July 1837.  The act establishing civil registration required that births be reported within 42 days and deaths within 5 days of the event.  Civil marriages could now be performed at the registrar's office, and those performed in the churches were registered by the ecclesiastical authority or representative quarterly.  Copies of the registration were sent to the Office for National Statistics each quarter, and they are indexed by calendar quarter.