ENGLISH & WELSH ROOTS - Government Records of Births, Marriages & Deaths:Civil
Registration in England and Wales - Part I
http://globalgenealogy.com/globalgazette/gazfd/gazfd26.htm

How the System Works

As with most government records, the system of civil registration does not
exisit for the convenience of genealogists! The system works in what seems to be
a simple fashion at first:

Births & Deaths:
* 1. An event occurs (a birth or a death)
* 2. An informant appears before the local registrar who records the
information and a certificate is issued.
* 3. The local registrar send the Registrar General a copy of each entry
at the end of each quarter.
* 4. As soon as the local Registrar's record book is full, it is sent to
the local Superintendent registrar where it remains permanently.

Marriages:
* 1. A civil marriage ceremony is performed and the even is recorded in
much the same manner as a birth or death event.
* 2. A marriage ceremony is performed at a church. However, because the
registrar is not present at the church, the "authorized person" - usually the
clergy or designated member of the congregation, records the event.
* 3. Each quarter the church sends all marriages performed to the
Superintendent registrar and the General Register Office.
* 4. Church registers usually remained at the church but many have now
been deposited at county record offices.

As you can see from the process briefly outlined above, each step is farther
removed from the actual event. In other words, unless you can turn back the
clock and become a personal witness to the event (which we know is impossible)
you are always left with some informants reporting of the event. Informants have
been known to be notoriously variable in the accuracy of the information
reported. Such is the system of civil registration. However, the information
contained on certificates is very important to our family history research.