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Births, Marriages, Deaths

5. Civil Service of Evidence of Age Records

The CSEA are 60,000 files for established civil servants and civil service examination candidates, which were collected by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) from 1855 in order to establish accurate birth dates for the purpose of either ensuring that an examination candidate was of the required age, or granting a pension.

By the 1980s, the CSC had accumulated original documents for approximately 60,000 individuals, consisting largely of items that it would be impractical to replace, such as personal testimonials or documents from overseas. This important genealogical collection was deposited at the Society of Genealogists (SoG) and provides unique evidence of birth for which other sources are unlikely to be available. It might more properly be titled the Remains of the Civil Service Evidences of Age, as it is estimated that it constitutes only 2% of the papers originally collected.

What period is covered by the collection?

This collection spans evidence of birth from 1752 up until the twentieth century, though the vast majority of births recorded took place in the nineteenth century.

The SoG indexers transcribed not just the civil service post-holder or candidate, but also any relatives named in the same document where a date of birth was given for them. There may be very little information recorded about such relatives: typically an estimated date of birth and their relationship to the main individual. Where these relatives were parents of civil service employees, they may well have been born well before the start of the nineteenth century.

It is important to realise that not all civil servants are reflected in the collection, let alone all those who applied to the Civil Service Commission for employment. In general, papers were not kept if the information could easily be obtained again from another source (such as through the Registrar General’s birth index).

What types of people are contained in the dataset?

The collection does not include the Whitehall staff usually thought of when the Civil Service is mentioned. It does include many others who were appointed through the Commission, often in comparatively humble posts – for instance prison officers, post office workers and workers in Admiralty dockyards.

What geographical area is covered?

Many candidates for the Service had been born in places and at times when no state registration of births existed. This was particularly the case for Scottish and Irish candidates and also for those born in foreign countries, on board ship (over 80 births) and in the British colonies. There are also many cases of candidates born in England after the start of civil registration whose births had not been registered: non-registration was not uncommon until fines were instituted in the 1870s.

The collection comprises those born in England (37% of all entries), Ireland (28%), Scotland (6%), Wales (2%), the British Empire and further afield. Of those born in England, counties well-represented include Middlesex/London (7% of the whole), Kent (3%), Devon and Dorset. There are five times as many Irish in the database as those of England per head of population. The Irish counties of Dublin (5%), Cork (3%), Armagh, Carlow, Queen"s (Laois) and Kildare are particularly well represented.

Elsewhere there are over 2,500 individuals born in the Indian sub-continent, and 1,250 born in Malta. Many of the latter group were employed in the Admiralty Dockyards in Valletta – their birth certificates give three generations of the family.

This data stems from a time when the British Empire was at the height of its power and influence.

There are also significant numbers of records (approximate number of files given in brackets) for the following countries: Canada (545), Australia (520, including Australians who worked in branches of the Royal Mint in Perth and Sydney), USA (475), South Africa (410), Gibraltar (400), France (240), Jamaica (155), Ceylon (150), Germany (125), Bermuda (115), New Zealand (110), Burma (95), Barbados (90), China (75), Greece (60), Egypt (55), Hong Kong (55), Italy (55), Belgium (50) and Bahamas (50). There are of course lower numbers of persons born in other colonies and foreign parts.

What can I find in the online index?

The index gives full name, date and place of birth, CSC reference number and additional notes made by indexers at the Society. Where no birth date is given, the SoG transcribers have recorded the baptismal date and place where these are given. 4% of entries therefore relate to baptisms and not to births.

The original documents are fascinating historical records. They may (or, of course, in some instances, may not) provide further information such as the address at time of application to join the Civil Service, details of other family members, and of the civil service department where the candidate would work. Many documents are also in the handwriting of the Civil Service applicant or post-holder, or of a member of their family.

What is the reference given in the index?

Each reference is composed of two parts: the first is a serial number, the second a box number.

It is not known what the serial number signifies. However, reference numbers beginning ICS (for example ICS 1866) indicates an applicant to the Indian Civil Service in the year 1866.

The collection came to the Society in some 200 boxes and the documents were in recruitment order, seemingly by department.

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There are some individuals whose forenames are not given, perhaps only their sex or forename initials being shown. This applies particularly to those born in China. There are also two individuals whose surnames are not known: a person born in Tamerton Foliott, Devon in September 1871 and a gentleman (forename Edward) living in Bristol in 1867.

This decision means that the country India is used in its pre-Independence sense and includes not just modern-day India but also places within Bangladesh, Burma and Pakistan. It also means that Ireland.

Please note that in three instances we have grouped places within a larger “country” entity. These are Malaysia (which includes the Federated Malay States and the Straits Settlements including Singapore); West Indies (which includes Jamaica); and Western Pacific Islands (which include Guam, Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti and Tonga).

Explanation of the tags in the Notes field

What do the original documents look like?

The original documents appear in a variety of languages other than English, including Dutch, French, German, Italian, Latin and Swedish.

Documents vary from originals of personal testimonies, certified copies of parish registers and birth certificates to such miscellaneous documents as original Indian horoscopes. Most files contain only one or two documents, while some where queries were evident run to 30 pages.

SoG charges a flat fee for producing all the documents within an individual\"s file, as stated. If the document is an index card, please be aware that these were transcripts, made in the 1960s and 1970s, of original documents and may contain little information beyond that given in the online index.