In what is now Belgium the mandatory recording of all births, marriages and deaths by a municipal office called Etat Civil in French and Burgerlijke Stand in Dutch, was established in 1796 by the French occupying forces as part of the Code Napoleon, a body of civil law that is still the basis of much jurisprudence in Belgium to this day.

There had been similar legislation in the framework of the Edict Perpetuel/Eeuwig Edict (eternal edict) of 1611 on the registering of baptisms (traditionally shortly after birth), marriages and deaths or burials (traditionally shortly after death..) by the church, which was established by the representatives of Spanish rule in the Southern Low Countries (corresponding very roughly to current Belgium). But because this was to be carried out by the church, it obviously did not include, for instance, Jewish inhabitants. Therefore, tiny as these minorities were, this was not a truly universal obligation.