Beginner's question re acronym in another post -

[Bristol20]

In the response to a query about non-conformist registers online, someone asked if this was "the RG 4, 5, and 8". I trying looking in the lexicon but couldn't find anything with "RG". This is a non-conformist question I would have asked as well - what's RG? Thank you

[jorose]

"RG" is a prefix used by the National Archives for cataloguing records, specifically:
Records of the General Register Office, Government Social Survey Department, and Office of Population Censuses and Surveys

Specifically,
RG4, RG5 and RG8 are series of records relating to non-conformist parish records handed over to the General Register Office in 1837 and 1857.  Some historical background can be read here:
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C13329

[Pheno]

I have always assumed that RG stood for Record Group?  Pheno

[Gadget]

I think I referred to RG4, etc, recently.  It stands for Registrar General. These are series of records produced by the General Register Office ( in the name of the Registrar General)

 https://www.gov.uk/general-register-office
https://www.gov.uk/research-family-history

For example,since 1861, all England and Wales censuses have been prefixed by RG......


Gadget

[KGarrad]

1841 and 1851 were prefixed with HO - for Home Office.

Mlitary records are prefixed by WO - War Office.

These prefixes are actually Department Codes 

[Gadget]

This was the thread:

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=832608.0