Genealogy Chat

It is still a Registrars responsibility to ensure all births are registered and there are legal processes available to a Registrar to ensure that is so.

This may help you understand why those elusive births cant be found prior to 1874.or when you expect them to be registered,

Up till 1874.when it became law that a Midwife be on a Register.and unlawful for anyone who wasnt to assist a birth without informing a local Midwife a birth had taken place she then informed the local Register Office, and till 1874 it was the Registrar's job to ensure that all births repoted were registered,if he found no record from his informed information he visited the parents if a registration was outside the given 42 days there was a fine to pay, by the parents even the owner of the house could also be fined where the birth took place.! if the parents werent married they often upped sticks and quickly moved.

Hence the issue of a certificate of proof to show if you moved to another county with a small baby its birth had been duly registered,often a birth would be registered outside its birth place.

After 1874 it became the sole responsibilty to inform of a childs birth,

And also prior to 1874 a man didnt have have to be present when a mother registered a birth,,so a mother could name any man as father she wished,,