Genealogy Chat

Ouch! I need to plough thru 1841 Manchester and I keep putting it off and off and off and off.....no wonder I can't find them, I haven't looked yet! It does give food for thought for....our youngest was born Dec 2003 and when we went to register him (still not married, btw!), the registrar gave us a leaflet that explained that parental responsibility changed 2 DAYS before he was born. Now, the father has equal rights to the mother providing he is present at registration and his name is on the cert. With our daughter (2002), we had to go to court and get a PR Agreement which gave him the same rights as me. Without it, he couldn't sign for her to have vaccinations, wouldn't have been able to give consent for surgery if necessary etc Lou

Hi Lou A bit before I had my kids then !! I just found it an intersting question that made me think and gave me a break from the Suffolk 1841 census that I've been working my way through for the past couple of hours ! Take Care Esta

Hi Esta I'm talking about 1883 BUT there was a thread about this on the board a few weeks ago about recent births. Several people said that they had had to re-register their children when they got married, yet We were told that it's not a legal requirement and others had been told the same. So not sure what the 'rules' are now but they certainly seem to have changed in the last 10 to 15 years. My son is 16 now and we didn't re-register him, it was never even suggested to us! Lou

Lou You're question has made me think now. My son is 14 and when he ws born I wasn't married to his father so he was registered with both surnames. We married 11 months later and he was re-registered with just the one surname. We were told that this is what we had to do, so we did. I think is ws something do with the legal rights of a father. Esta ** It is not unusual for a couple to have children before they are married. In these circumstances the legal rights of the father are negligible unless the parents go through the legal process of taking out Parental Responsibility agreements or certain other legal measures. However, if the natural parents of a child subsequently marry, they can apply through any register office for a new registration which will record the birth as though they had been married at the time. This establishes the full legal rights of the father without the need for any other action.**

Thanks Jess I know I've read about several cases of people finding births re-registered once the parents married. Wasn't sure if it was a legal requirement or whether some people just chose to do it and others didn't bother Lou

I guess they'd just drop it Jess

If someone was illegitimate and registered under their mothers surname with their fathers surname as a middle name then the parents subsequently married, would the birth needed to be re-registered in order for that person to DROP the mothers surname from his name!!!! Thanks Lou