Genealogy Chat

Thanks Nell, I never thought of that. He didn't get married until 1901 though (unless he had a first wife, which I can't find!) Sarah

From the brilliant http://home*.*clara*.*net/dixons/Certificates/indexbd*.*htm [remove * to use] 'Column 8 - Date of Registration. In the early days the parents had 3 weeks to register in and could not register at all after 3 months. After a while this was changed to 6 weeks to register in, a late registration could be made up to a year after the birth if the superintendent took the information and signed the register too, and registration could not take place after 1 year without reference to GRO. Once the delay was this long then proof of the event had to be provided by other parties who knew of this event eg midwife or doctor or siblings alive at the time and able to recall the event. Even now, if it is not possible to provide the proof and/or the people who can attest to the truth of the event it is not possible to register and there are people walking around today with no birth certificate. It means, therefore, that a birth registered very late could be in the indexes a whole year later or more than expected. It is also relevant in that there were penalties for late registrations that were quite severe in the beginning and rather than get into trouble parents would 'adjust' the date of birth to fall within the specified time for registration. If you have a discrepancy between a date of birth on a certificate and one given on a baptismal certificate, have a look at the date of registration. If it is very close to the six weeks, it is quite likely that the parents didn't tell the truth at registration but did at baptism where there were no penalties. There were no checks on the dates of birth until well into this century.' The birth may not have been registered for many reasons, including just forgetting about it. But perhaps the child's age of 15 was significant - maybe s/he started work/wanted to get married which is when the fact s/he wasn't registered came to light? nell

Sarah Hold on, I might have the answer in a minute. nell

Does anyone know why a birth in 1873 might not have been registered until 1888? This has happened in the case of one of my ancestors. The certificate has the correct birth date on, but it wasn't registered until 15 years late! Sarah