You may have noticed that the researchers who work for the Clearwater Detective Agency, Duncan Fairbairn, and now, Will Merrit, often say they have to go to Somerset House. Why?

After it had been a royal palace and duke’s residence, Somerset House, as we now see it as a Georgian-era structure, was built to be a grand public building housing various government and public-benefit society offices. In 1837, following the establishment of civil registration in the United Kingdom, the Registrar General of Births, Marriages and Deaths set up his office in the North Wing of Somerset House, establishing a connection that lasted for over 130 years. This office held all birth, marriage and death certificates in England and Wales until 1970.

That’s why my fictional researchers have to go there. However, I was writing a chapter last week in which Will Merrit says he has to visit Somerset House to find a record, and this made me think: how easy was it to find records of Births, Marriages, and Deaths (BMD records) in 1892. So, I asked a genealogist friend of mine, and this is what he said.

Brief History of British Birth, Marriage and Death Record Keeping

Funnily enough, I have had some experience of this, while I was in London with you. (We used to share a flat in Hackney, years ago.) I took the opportunity of being in London to make a personal visit to the Government Records Office (GRO) which in those days was opposite where the BBC World Service was based, near Fleet Street, after it had been moved from Somerset House. So I had to do what our Victorian ancestors would have done.

But you must remember that the BMD records were kept in two different places and there are always two copies, one in each place.

When a registration was created for a birth or a death, you went to your nearest local registration or sub-registration office, which was usually your local town or large village. Let’s say you registered a birth at a sub-registration office. 

Your registrar had two identical books. He made an identical handwritten entry in each book. At the end of each quarter year, he sent both books to his main area registration office, probably the main town or city. The main registration office kept one book in its records and sent the other book to the GRO in London (in England and Wales). Scotland and Ireland had their own GROs.

In the London GRO they then made a quarterly alphabetical index. It was handwritten in a massive volume. Every Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun, etc., the indices gave the full name of the person and some other details which varied over the years.

When you wanted a certificate for a birth, death, or marriage, you had two choices.
You could either visit the local office where it was originally registered and ask them there to look it up. You would need a good idea of the date because they didn’t have indices there. They would get out the original volumes and leaf through until they found the correct entry. They probably wouldn’t search a decade, but they might search a year in the smaller offices. They wouldn’t let you do it. You would not be allowed to handle the books.

And then, once found, you could pay a fee, on two levels, and have either a short copy (cheaper) or a full certified copy which was just a handwritten exact copy of the entry in the book. The certified copy could be used in law cases, passports, and so on. The short copy was for your personal information but could not be used legally.

And that’s what many people did for passports. They went to their local office, told them their date of birth and got a certified copy. In the old days, poor families often hadn’t paid to have a birth certificate copy. You registered but went away without a copy. And even today you still aren’t required to pay. Registration is free, you only pay if you want a copy.

The other alternative was to go to the GRO at Somerset House or wherever. But there, you couldn’t ask them to go leafing through the books. You had to provide them with the full indexing details. So that is why the index volumes existed. The public were able to go to the shelves and get out the index volumes. These were big heavy leather-bound books, all handwritten. You got the volume for the quarter you thought was the right one, you went through and identified the likely entry and noted the GRO index references, then you took the details to the clerks’ desks and handed them in. You paid your fee for a certified copy.

What I’m not sure is what happened next in 1892. In 1995 I had to do all that, but I had to give my address and they would post it to me within a few days. Maybe in 1892 you were able to wait while someone did it.

Basically, a clerk would go into the archives, look up the exact entry you had given in, and make a handwritten certified copy of the entry. Again, you yourself never got to see or handle the books. All you got was that clerk’s certified handwritten copy. He might easily make mistakes and misread them. 

In the 1990s things improved because they began photocopying the originals onto the certified copies, so you got to see a photocopy of the original and could interpret the handwriting yourself. Also, when they put the indices online, you were able to send off postal applications.

But basically, in 1892, you either went to your local office (which was much simpler), and got a cooperative clerk to leaf through. But offices might vary, and you might get officious ones that were less cooperative and demanded more precise details. Some might even show you the original entry if there was some question of interpretation. 

But if you went to the GRO it was all down to you finding the correct entry yourself using only the public shelves indices. Then handing in the reference to the clerk and applying for the copy. They would not go searching for you, or let you do it. And you certainly couldn’t take any indices home with you.

The indices gradually got replaced by typewritten copies over the years and the original handwritten indices were retired. But of course, the typewritten copies introduced their own copying errors.

I’m sure that even in 1892 you could pay professional researchers to do this for you. Lawyers did it all the time for clients who needed certificates for legal purposes. Detective agencies too. But they would only have the same access as the public. They would not get to leaf through the originals, except maybe as a favour in a local office where they had good relationships.

Churches did the same with marriages. Churches sent their books each quarter to the local registration office.

Fascinating stuff, and if you remember Fairbairn from the Clearwater and Larkspur Mysteries, you’ll recall he had a way of getting what he wanted from the clerks. I.e. he gave out sexual favours in return for being allowed access to the actual books and records. Will Merrit’s approach is different, but even he doesn’t find it easy to discover what he needs.

What’s pleasing for me though is to see that what I imagined to be the process was accurate. It was even possible that Will would wait for a copy of a record to arrive in the post, as I wrote only two days ago!

The images, btw, are from my family history collection and are real documents. These were all found online in the past 15 years. How the internet has changed things!