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What does the volume number mean?

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InspectorGreenPen

InspectorGreenPen Report 15 Feb 2010 12:18

Every quarter, every registrar in England and Wales sends copies of every registration done in their registers or their local churches (temples etc.) in the last quarter. The whole of England and Wales is divided into a number of areas. Within each of the areas, the quarterly copies are placed in the same order and filmed and indexed.

The GRO reference eg June quarter 1876 Vol 3 No 15 is a very precise one. It tells someone at GRO receiving an application for any registration to look first of all for the films for 1876, then find the ones for the June quarter, then find Vol 3 - put this film in the machine, turn to photo 15 and find which of the 5 births or deaths entries, or 2 marriage entries the person has asked for. It does not take too long whether it is a birth, death or marriage entry being requested. This index is only of use in the central records of the General Register Office.

In practice, the same GRO volume may contain details for one or more registration districts. The same volume no is reused for each quarter and can appear fro several years. Every now and again, new volume numbers appear. So you might see marriage for a particular district under Vol 3a for a number of years then suddenly it changes to 7b.

Adam

Adam Report 15 Feb 2010 11:58

A lot of the certificates which I have found that relate to a section of my family all come from Vol 2a in Kingston. What is the relevance of this? Is it because it's all the same parish or is it more specific than that?

Many Thanks

Debbie