Civil registration was first discussed by Parliament in 1833. Just imagine if they'd passed legislation then - just 4 years later, it was made lawful in 1837, but those 4 years in my family history, covering births, marriages and deaths 1833-37 would have been invaluable in solving serveral mysteries!
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Early civil registration - if only!
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Registration, and then censuses, were introduced to give the government a more accurate idea of the demography of the population, and a basis on which to do forward planning.
It was, really, the very very beginning of a national social conscience if you like - how many poor people were there, where did they live, how much future housing would be neeeded and so on, how fast was the overall population increasing, how many foreigners lived here.
It was also a handy way of working out how many fit and able men there were, who could go to war on the nation's behalf!
And finally - for tax purposes! Very few people paid income tax then, but it was handy to see how many people could be classed as falling into that bracket.
I have a census taken in 1819 - full details and lots of rude comments alongside. It includes BIRTH DATES - oh, joy! and some marriage dates.
OC
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Well, if the earlier censuses were taken, they would have had limited information and like the 1841 without people's relationships or actual birthplaces and accurate ages, may not have been as useful as the actual baptism registers we DO have.
Mind you, the idea of gathering demographic information to inform planning isn't necessarily effective - when I was a toddler my Mum filled in a local questionnaire designed to help plan for education provision. When I started at my brand new school, I had a temporary (still there when I left) classroom, and we all had to go home for dinner as they hadn't allowed for a kitchen! This was a purpose-built school to cater for the local population and they hadn't planned to give us lunch!!!~ with love from Little Nell~Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy
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