121398: The General Register Office

The General Register Office for England and Wales is the section of the United Kingdom Her Majesty’s Passport Office responsible for the civil registration of births (including stillbirths), adoptions, marriages, civil partnerships and deaths in England and Wales and for those same events outside the United Kingdom if they involve a United Kingdom citizen and qualify to be registered in various miscellaneous registers.

The General Register Office was founded in 1836 by the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1836, and civil registration commenced in 1837.