Genealogy Chat

hi was wondering if any one knows how to find a birth/ death record for a stillbirth/ premature birth. have first hand account of approximate birth and death but can find no records.

Stillbirths are on a separate (closed) register which first came into force around 1927.

Prior to that, I doubt you will find that any records were kept.

You refer to a 'death' which means that the child must have been born alive....................in which case, there should be normal documentation

thanks the birth i refered to was a younger sister to my mum she knows she was born after 1948 at home. she was called marie and had some kind of illness disability which hospitilised her for most of her life and she died when she was approximatly 5/6 years old. but i cant find any records any where, any relatives of the right age to have a good memory of it, wont talk about it and say the past is the past and it needs to say there. but im noisy and think she needs to be remembered.

Hi Laura,

if little Marie died aged 5 or 6 years she should have had her birth and death registered in the normal way. It was a legal requirement. The fact that she may have been hospitalised wouldn't change that. Where have you looked so far?

Caz

Laura, have you tried different spellings of the name Marie?
Possibly she had a different first name which would put her reg details in a different part of the index?
Perhaps she hadnt been named when she was reg, so she would be under (Surname) female.
And you need to look several years each side of the one you think is correct as you might have been told the wrong year, particularly if the teller knows that you are liable to be digging for the correct info.

Huia.

i have looked in the birth and death records for the local area five years either side that the birth and death were supposed to have been. i have also tried different spellings and no first name at all, but still no luck. i have also tried the local parish records but still no luck. i have got a small document from a hospital which informs of her transfer to another hospital, but you cant access medical records can you? i know she excisted just cant find the records. any ideas?

Laura

Are you able to put the info you have on here-or do you feel it is too sensitive?

You say she possibly had a disabililty or illness.
At that time (1940s-50s)she may well have been put in an institution away from home depending on what the problem was and that could account for the family reluctance to talk about it.

With her name I feel sure someone on here could help

It might be worth widening the search area a little.

If she was in some sort of institution at the time of her death, say, it could have been some distance from her family. Might even have been in the next County.

Jill

Hi Laura
Just reading through different messages- the document that you have which says Marie was transferred from one hospital to another-is there a date on that document. What type of hospitals were they? Was she in an institutional type of hospital, if we are talking about the early 1950's- or was she transferred from an acute hospital where she would be treated and then returned as soon as treatment was carried out? Did she have treatment that proved terminal or was the transfer back to an institutional type of hospital which would suggest she continued to live.
The reluctance to discuss her within the family maybe because at the time there may have been a difference of opinion as to how the child was cared for.It was a different era and the authorities thought nothing of removing children from their families if it suited.
J

if she had been put in an institution surely there should still be birth and death records. i dont know details of disability or illness, do know she came home on visits only for a couple of hours at a time and was hooked up to an oxygen cyclinder. i think she might of had some sort of chest/ breathing problem.

are you sure that she died as a child?


it was not unknown for children (or even adults) who lived in institutions to be forgotten by their parents and other relatives. So she could have lived much longer than you think.



sylvia

yes it is possible that she lived for longer, if she was in an insitution is there any way of finding out? but i still dont understand why i cant find a birth certificate. a lady i meet at the local records office (she didnt work there) said sometimes records were removed and sealed if a person was institutionalised. is that a possibility. and if so will i ever be able to find them. any help or advice gratefully recieved.

There is one other possible scenario..............

If the child was not fathered by the mother's husband, the birth/death might not be registered under the surname for which you are looking.........

Not casting aspersions on your relatives (!!).........just thinking of possible reasons for your being unable to trace the records..........

Does the document which you have include her surname?

did think of that so did also look under the mothers maiden name but still no luck. starting to think that she is not supposed to be found. if someone was put in an insituton in the late 1940's early 50's , depending on what the health reason was it is possible that she is still alive. is there any way of checking?