Genealogy Chat

Questions come up here from time to time about these abbreviations on BMD certificates. They occur after an address and indicate Rural District, Rural Sanitary District, Urban District, Urban Sanitary District. The following explanation comes from Wiki via Google:

"Sanitary Districts were established in England and Wales in 1875 and in Ireland in 1878. The districts were of two types, based on existing structures:

"Urban sanitary districts in towns with existing local government bodies
"Rural sanitary districts in the remaining rural areas of poor law unions.
"Each district was governed by a sanitary authority and was responsible for various public health matters such as providing clean drinking water, sewers, street cleaning, and clearing slum housing.

"In England and Wales, both rural and urban sanitary districts were replaced in 1894 by the Local Government Act 1894 by the more general rural districts and urban districts. A similar reform was carried out in Ireland in 1899 by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898."

In their turn Urban and Rural Districts were abolished in the local government reforms of 1974, although some had ceased to exist earlier through the creation of new towns.

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Nudge please for this very helpful info.

Thank you.
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