The Registrar General's Department (RGD) is Jamaica's sole authority for registering vital events — births, stillbirths, deaths, adoptions, marriages, and deed polls. Established in 1879, one year after compulsory civil registration began on 1 April 1878 across all 14 parishes, the RGD maintains Jamaica's definitive repository of vital records spanning over 145 years of national history.
The RGD operates from its headquarters in Twickenham Park, St. Catherine, with seven regional offices located in Mandeville, St. Ann's Bay, Montego Bay, Port Antonio, Savanna-la-Mar, Santa Cruz, and Kingston (Trevennion Park Road). Birth, marriage, and death certificates can be ordered online or in person at any branch. The RGD also offers genealogical research services for persons tracing their family history through Jamaica's parish-organized civil records.
Jamaican birth certificates contain the child's full name, date and place of birth, names of both parents, and the parish in which the birth was registered. Older certificates — particularly those predating digitization — may contain handwritten entries in cursive script, which can present legibility challenges for translation. Marriage certificates, registered through the RGD after the ceremony is performed by a licensed Marriage Officer, include the names, ages, and occupations of both parties, the marriage date and location, and the officiating officer's details. A period of three to four months is typically required for the issuance of a certified copy of the marriage certificate following the ceremony.
For international use, RGD-issued vital records can be authenticated with an apostille from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade (MFAFT). When these documents must be submitted to non-English-speaking countries, DoVisa provides certified translations that accurately render the RGD's formatting conventions, parish designations, and institutional terminology into the required target language.








