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Birmingham Register Offices

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badpenny

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I am trying to find the locations of all the Birmingham register offices since registration was introduced from 1837.

I only know of three, Holiday Street, Broad Street and Edmund Street.

How many were there before that and where would they have been, any ideas?
 
There are threads on the various Register offices, the Edmund Street one, and in particular its location, was discussed here https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/register-office-edmund-street.48141/

Pre Edmund Street there was one in Newhall Street, but I don't think there's much information about it. Be interesting to find out more about the Newhall Street office, if anyone can offer information.

And as you say there was until relatively recently the Broad St office. Now that's been demolished and moved to Holliday Street.
Viv.
 
Hello Viv,

So, Newhall Street it is then as the earliest register office, i wonder if they dealt with Aston events as well?

Might be worth merging this thread with that highlighted above.

Badpenny..
 
Each area had its own sub registrar at one time. Also registrars for marriages were not necessarily the same as those for births and deathasThus from 1900 Kellys:

district registrars from Kellys 1900.jpg
 
I think Aston had its own until the 1920s. I was surprised when I sent for a marriage certificate which came back with the 1911 marriage at Aston Registry Office.
 
Also remember that the Register offices were based on the old Poor Law unions. Birmingham North was the old Birmingham Poor Law Union and Birmingham South was the old Kings Norton Poor Law Union. I have three relatives, husband and wife and son who all lived in Smethwick, who all died within three weeks of each other in the early 1930s. One died at home so was recorded as Birmingham South (Smethwick was in the Kings Norton Union) and two were taken less than a mile to Dudley Road Hospital and were registered as Birmingham North
 
Good morning

I'm a new member (just joined but have read bits of the forum for years) so my apologies if I'm posting in the wrong place.

I'm a Registrar at Birmingham Register Office as well as being an Historian, and I'm aiming to write a book for our 200th anniversary in 2037 about 200 years of the Birmingham Register Office. I'm doing okay on primary and secondary research so far (having only started 2 weeks ago...) but I'm struggling to get specific Birmingham memories. Does anyone have any memories of working at/registering at/getting married at any of the Birmingham Register Offices, or stories of family members? I'd appreciate any information you might have.
 
Can anyone who got married in the early 1980's or gave notice to marry at that time tell me about the layout of the Birmingham Register Office on Broad Street please? Where in the building was notice to marry given? and was it just at an open desk in a waiting area? or through a kiosk? or in a private office? Many thanks
 
As far as I can remember I went in a door on the left to a reception desk.
We got married in Shirley but as my husband to be lived in Birmingham we had to give notice and collect some paperwork later.
I don't remember an office of any sort. I can't even remember what form we had to fill in.
 
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pjmburns said:
As far as I can remember I went in a door on the left to a reception desk.
We got married in Shirley but as my husband to be lived in Birmingham we had to give notice and collect some paperwork later.
I don't remember an office of anybsort. I can't even remember what form we had to fill in.
Click to expand...
Thank you for this reply. Much appreciated.
 
I believe my birth was registered at Birmingham North. Would this be the Aston Office? My parents lived in Erdington.

When I googled an enquiry it also gave Newhall Street as a previous location but I'm not sure about this one.
 
As far as I can tell (using Freebmd info) Aston existed as a reg area until 1924
Then Birmingham North and South between 1924 and 1932. Then just Birmingham.
Not sure where the actual offices were.
 
As pointed out in post 6 above, after 1837 Regisitration was based initially on Poor Law Union areas. There were originally four Registration Districts [=R.D.] covering what is now Birmingham. These were Birmingham [the borough] which was quite tiny at the time!, Aston which covered a much larger area, Kings Norton [which included Smethwick, Harborne, Kings Norton, Northfield & Edgbaston] and last but not least Solihull which included the old parish of Yardley.

In 1912 Yardley R.D. was transferred to Kings Norton R.D.

In 1924 Birmingham R.D. was split into:
Birmingham South R.D. - including Kings Norton R.D. and parts of Birmingham & Aston R.Ds.
Birmingham North R.D. - parts of Birmingham & Aston R.Ds.

In 1932 The above two districts were amlgamated to form Birmingham R.D. but with many sub-districts.

My interest came out of the tangled web of tracing registration on the Wake Green Estate originally in Yardley, then Moseley and now Birmingham

Much interesting information on these changes etc can be seen on https://www.ukbmd.org.uk/reg/war.html
 
In 1931 superintendent registrars:
Birmingham North was at 40 Newhall Street
Birmingham South was at 100 Edmund Street
There were local registrars of birth who presumably were linked to one or the other main offices
 
pjmburns said:
In 1931 superintendent registrars:
Birmingham North was at 40 Newhall Street
Birmingham South was at 100 Edmund Street
There were local registrars of birth who presumably were linked to one or the other main offices
Click to expand...
Back in 1905 when Moseley was in the Kings Norton R.D. the local office for registering births & deaths was in Woodbridge Road. Perhaps worth repeating a couple of illus from Woodbridge Road thread.

1771361281519.png 1771361401415.png
Registrar was in the tall building on the right at the far end Ack to PJMBURNS for illus.

There is often confusion between PLACE OF BIRTH and the PLACE OF REGISTRATION [of birth] - they are of course not the same. Folks born in Sparkhill would be registered in Solihull R.D. before 1912 - and then in Kings Norton R.D. until 1924. Unfortunately birth certificates are not always clear to new family historians.
 
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