Genealogy Chat

Whilst doing some more research very recently on the Family History Site regarding my Nan's family, I came across the record of a child I had not seen before.

This was a christening record for 1876.

I went to FreeBMD and searched for the birth..nothing shown!

On a whim, I searched the deaths for the same period, and lo and behold, there was a death registration for the child. Appeared in the same quarter that the christening took place, and age shown as 0.

My question is, if the child was born alive, why was the birth not registered?

If the child was still born, why was there a christening record and a death registration?

Not important in the overall context of my researches, but still being relatively new to this, it has aroused my curiosity.

Allan

Hi Allan

A mother had 6 weeks in which to register a birth, without penalty.

The law had changed in mid-1874 re registering births, because so many babies were not registered. But even so, a lot were not registered, or were registered late.


If a baby was sickly at birth, and not expected to live, there was often a hasty baptism .................. if you can get to see the baptism record, you may well see "Private Baptism" marked on such a baptism.


In addition, anyone could baptise such a baby if a minister was not available ............ father, nurse, midwife, etc could all do a special baptism.


If the baby died very close to its birth, then it did happen that parents registered the death, but forgot to register the birth.


But do also check the next quarter.



sylvia

ps ...... loved your email.

Many thanks Sylvia

I was just curious. My Nan had a child that only lived for three hours, and I do have both the birth and death certificate for that child.

The child I came across would have been my Nan's brother, if he had survived

I'm glad about the email, obviously it opened ok :-)

Allan

Hi Allan,
I'm in Australia and not sure about where you are but here if child was stillborn or died soon after birth the family could still baptise the child,,,,,even though the births were usually not registered.
Most cases the baptism had to take place for the baby to be buried through the church.

Kellie

Kellie

Allan is talking about a situation in England

I believe that it is still the case in England and Wales that a baby has to be breathing to be baptised, although it was not unknown in earlier times for the midwife to say the baby had taken a breath or two, so she had baptised it. This was so the baby could be buried in the consecrated part of the graveyard, not in the unconsecrated area.


This of course does not apply these days.

Hi Kellie,

Sylvia is correct. I was talking about a death in the UK. I'm presuming that the child in question was baptised for the reason that you and Sylvia have stated. I was just curious as to why no birth was registered when the death was.

I am also in Australia, near Perth, but I am originally from the UK.

Kind regards

Allan

Allan

it happened quite often


I think the family may just have been so upset that they forgot to register the birth.


The mother was the only one who was supposed to register the birth (unless she had died in childbirth), while the father (or anyone else who had been present at the death) could register the death of the baby


so maybe the mother wasn't well enough to go to the Registrar



as I said, it is not uncommon ...........

............... just as it is not uncommon to find any child has not been registered :-)



sylvia

Thanks Sylvia.

As my Great Grandmother went on to have 9 more children after this birth,and one before, I deduce that she did not die in childbirth :-)

In fact, she died after falling out of bed and hitting her head many years later. There was an inquest but I haven't yet tracked down the details.

As I say, this particular birth came out of the blue, to me at least.

When I was given the details of my Nan's family many years ago by one of her nieces , there was no mention of this particular baby.

Regards

Allan

Now checked all quarters for 1876. No record of any birth. :-(

Allan

Ah well, Allan, at least there arent any unknown descendents of the child out there for you to chase.

Huia.

Lol Huia. :-D

How are you?

The male siblings seem to be a bit of a 'dead end', well many of them.

One became a tramp, another died aged six, and a third, who was unmarried, died in France in one of the WW1 battles in 1914.

Two did survive and had families. I did meet both of these great uncles.

Allan