Genealogy Chat

As birth registration wasn't compulsory till 1875, does anyone know if there were any time limits on registration when it was first introduced in 1837? My g-g'mother's age as given on her marriage cert and BMD index for her death puts her birth as 1842-3. But she appears in the 1841 census, age 1, indicating birth as 1839-40. In the 1851 census her age is almost unreadable but looks like 10 or 11. Searching freeBMD for births June 1838 to Dec 1845 throws up only one entry in the appropriate county, for the September quarter 1841.
Two possibilities come to mind:
(a) she was born 1839-40 but not registered till 1841 and was never aware of her true age;
(b) the child shown in the 1841 census died soon afterwards and a child born later that year was given the same name - a not uncommon occurrence in those days of high infant mortality.
Any general suggestions welcome. I've not exhausted my own avenues of investigation yet, but I can give names dates and places by PM if anyone wants more details.
PS. I'm pretty sure that the census records refer to the correct family.

Ricochet and Carolyn:

Just being over-cautious I suppose. Name is Ellen Casey. In 1841 census ecclesiastical parish not known, civil parish is Prestbury in registration district of Macclesfield. She could well have adjusted her age at marriage (in 1872), it's given as 29 and husband Henry Gregory as 27 - his is correct as I have birth cert. Henry may never have known her real age, hence stated to be 61 at her death in 1903.

Somerset Girl:

Thanks for your PM - will reply soon

All:

Signing off for the night now. Will probably be too busy tomorrow to do much on GR.

A

I have a birth that wasnt registered until 3 months afterwards. Her mother had died 8 days after giving birth and she was a widow so her sister was the informant. The baby was born in 1916 and wasnt registered till 1917 mar qt

Quinsgran

That would be about right.......if she was born in Dec & registered at the end of the 6 week period then she would come up in the next Qtr so in this case it happened to be the following year

Julie

this is the only one appearing on Cheshire bmd in the Macclesfield area, unfortuneately it lumps several years together so exact year not shown

Cheshire Birth indexes for the years: 1840 to 1845
CASEY Ellen East Macclesfield

I can find an Ellen Casey d/o James + Alice a=1(1841), a=10(1851), a=27(1871) in Cheshire, each time with parents and sis Elizabeth b abt1847. I can find an Ellen, visitor in rg9/2582 a=20(1861) and elsewhere in rg9/2582, a James, Head b abt1806. There's no sign of Alice or Eliz - maybe they're in Ireland visiting in-laws.

My guess is she wasn't registered, and later on, fudged on her age (assuming she actually knew it).

I can't see the actual census details with my lack of an Ancestry sub, but I think it would be worth getting hold of the actual image for 1841, and of the corresponding Enumerator's description. These would help in determining which parish they were in, although they might be RCs. There possibly is a baptismal record for Ellen.

Macclesfield Registration district contained a slew of parishes, including:
SUTTON, a township, in the union and parochial chapelry of Macclesfield, parish of Prestbury, N. division of the county of Chester; adjoining the town of Macclesfield, and containing, in 1841, 7035 inhabitants....
Lewis 1848 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/source.aspx?pubid=445
[Ellen + Henry were wed in Sutton, St James]

I might add that the (incomplete) local registers' indices at ChesireBMD mostly include age at death, even pre 1865.
http://www.cheshirebmd.org.uk/

my birth certificte, i was registered 2 months after i was born. But i think because i was adopted out .

There is also the basic fact that most of our ancestors were illiterate .... so often didn't know how to spell their names, didn't always know where they were born or how to spell place names, and birthdays meant little to them, so they didn't know how old they were!!



Also, consider the fac tthat the census images carry a person's age in years, then a modern day transcriber has changed that to a year of birth. However, the age given on the census may be as much as 2 years out depending on the date of the census and the birth date of the person. This tkaes no allowance for the informant not knowing the actual age and making a wild stab at it!


When I am searching fro anyone, whether it be on a census or in other records, I always allow +/- 5 years in an attempt to cover all possibilities.



sylvia

I presume this is Ellen in 1841

1841 Census

Name: Ellen Casey
Age: 1
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1840
Gender: Female
Where born: Cheshire, England

Civil parish: Prestbury
Hundred: Macclesfield
County/Island: Cheshire
Country: England

Registration district: Macclesfield
Sub-registration district: East Macclesfield

James Casey 34
Alice Casey 28
Ellen Casey 1




her age is shown as 1 on the actual image ....... but she could actually have been anywhere between the ages of 1 and 2. She was not younger than 12 months as age is shown in months for babies under 1 year.




In the same way..................... the age on a death certificate is only what the informant knows, so if she lopped a couple of years off her age when she married and never told anyone .................................




sylvia

Julie.
Thank you for responding. I did know if a birth happened in Dec it could be registered the following year in the mar qt. However in the case in question the baby was born 16 dec 1916 13 months after her "father " was killed in WW1 Her mother died 27th dec. Sadly the baby died too.The baby was registered 17th Mar 1917.

Thanks everyone for your helpful replies. I'll have to sit down with them and work out what they all mean, but I think I can see where they're leading.