Availability of "modern" records.....

Birth, Marriage, Death

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runepriest
Posts: 57
Joined: Fri Jul 29, 2005 5:50 am
Location: canada

Availability of "modern" records.....

Post by runepriest » Sat Oct 15, 2005 5:29 am

Greetings all;

I have a question regarding vital records for the turn of the century.

Are they protected by privacy laws for all persons, including family, or are they accessible only to family members? (with sufficient identification)

Thanks.

Brian
Researching - Lawson, Black, Hampton, Bruce, Robbins, Brown, Hunt, Lester, Napier

AndrewP
Site Admin
Posts: 6189
Joined: Sun Dec 12, 2004 1:36 am
Location: Edinburgh

Post by AndrewP » Sat Oct 15, 2005 6:31 am

Hi Brian,

The restriction for viewing birth, marriage and death certificates applies to internet searching only. Under current legislation, internet searching will only give births more than 100 years old, marriages more than 75 years old and deaths more than 50 years old.

If you, or someone on your behalf can go to New Register House in Edinburgh, you can see birth, marriage and death certificates up to 2003. You do not need to be related. These are open for all to view and to purchase copies of. Certificates more recent than 2003 are still to have their inspection completed and are not available in New Register House until signed off as passed that inspection. The index is complete up to 2005 and is added to regularly as the certificates are issued.

For certificates newer than 2003, I believe they can be viewed at the Registration Office where they were issued (as can older certificates - New Register House has the duplicate set of certificates, the first set are permanently retaind at the issuing Registration Office).

The exception to the above availability of recent certificates is the census. Under current legislation, all censuses are covered by a 100 year closure rule. Hence the next census to be released will be the 1911 census, that should be opened to the public in early 2012. That appplies equally to New Register House and internet searching.

All the best,

Andrew Paterson