Birth records have been around for centuries and date back to the Chinese, Greek and Roman civilizations. And while the primary idea of birth records has stayed the same, these civilizations had different uses for their birth records than we do today and used them to track taxes and military information. Similar to how families get tax cuts depending on how many children they have today, families in these civilizations paid taxes based on how many kids they had, which could be seen in birth records. The military used birth records to predict the future size of the army by keeping track of men who were born and would be able to serve in the army when they were older.

The system of record keeping was also much different then than it is now. In older times it was the church that controlled everything, including all vital records. However, we now have a separate branch of the local government that keeps track of all the vital records. This change between church and government didn’t take place until the 19th Century, when the United Kingdom gave control of vital records to the government.

However, there are some things that have been listed on birth records for al these years. This information includes the names of the parents, the doctor and the hospital in which a child was born. It’s important that birth records maintain the same universal outline in order for governments to interpret records from other countries easier. Although the languages may be different, the way the information on a birth record is presented is basically the same all over the world.