Genealogy Chat

I have been told that with the birth certificate of a twin the birth time is entered so that you know that child is one of a twin. Did this happen as far back as 1922? Georgina

My grandfather's 1901 birth certificate has the time and he was a twin. Of course you can often spot twins in the index because they will have the same surname, district, volume and page number (or +/- one on the page number). Happy hunting

Hi Stephen and Jackie, Thanks for that info. I was trying to find out for a friend. Her grandmother just died and they always thought she was a twin but when they registered the death they were told the info about the time and there is no time on her birth certificate. Georgina

Hi Jackie Tree Mad, on Scottish birth certs the time of birth is given wther it's a miltiple or single birth. Hope thats helpful Christine

"If there is a time against the date of birth then there was more than one child born alive at the birth. If however a mother had twins, one liveborn and one stillborn, then the live born twin will not have a time against the birth. Until 1926 there were no registrations at all of a still born child. Having said that, again the early registrations are not consistent. The registrar in the Eton district did not put the times of births of twins in the registers at all until 1845 while the one in Stoke-on-Trent put times against all the registrations up until about 1850. It is possible to check for twins by looking for identical or consecutive GRO references in the indexes." from the excellent http://home*.clara*.net/dixons/Certificates/births*.htm which has a wealth of info about what is found on bmd certs. Remember to remove * first. nell

My Great great grandmother, Sarah Wright was born on 24 January 1848 in New Elvet, Co. Durham. Her certificate states that she was born at 10.00am but I can't find another 'Wright' child with the similar or same reference number. any advice? was she a twin or not? Many thanks

lana If you read the copy I posted above, you will see that some registrars always put the time. Alternatively, its possible that there was a twin who was stillborn. If this was so, there would be no birth or death cert. Stillbirths were registered from 1927. More info here: http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/stillbirths/ nell

Thanks for that info!! Greatly appreciated

Hi All, Just saw there were some more replies to my request for information. Many thanks to you all. Georgina

I have a birth in 1842 in London where there is a time recorded. However he was not a twin, so I think it sometimes depends on the registrar and what he felt like recording.