Genealogy Chat

Hi I believe that a birth has to be registered in 6 weeks. Prehaps so,some oone else will confirm. Liz

Hi, Does anybody know of a reason why it would have taken someone 6yrs to register their child's birth? This happened in the last 60yrs and also the birth was registered by the father and not the mother even though the mother was definately alive and kicking. She only died 4yrs ago. Laurie

Hi Jennifer, I needed to check the date my nan died on 1837 and when I found it, it also had the d.o.b, this date of birth was the correct date and as far as I know the actual site gives out the quarters and when you are fairly sure you have the right one you will receive an exact copy with the exact date. Laurie

I have a similar problem, my grandmother was born in 1920 and brought up by her paternal grandparents who only told her the truth when they adopted her when she was about 15. She never had a birth certificate and has no idea who her mother was, nor did she ever meet her father as he emigrated to Canada shortly after she was born. Yvette

My Grandfather was born to his unmarried 16 year old mother in the district of Leicester when she was from Preston, unfortunately his mum made up a surname so he wasn't cristened with the correct name. They both moved back to her home town after a couple of years and she told everyone she had married and her husband had died, but she never actually married. So keep an open mind and take into account all possibilities! Good luck!

I think it was common in the 19th century where a child was born illeg. for the grandparents to keep the child with them, as the alternative was probably the workhouse. It is often a useful cue in following censuses, as to what actually happened. I think a prospective husband might jib at taking bastard children. Where people were very poor sending someone away seems not to have been an option in my family tree, and illegitimacy not so uncommon if you read the church records for the time. I suspect the "Victorian" attitude was more common in the first half of the twentieth century, as conditions improved, and you could afford to be judgemental!

There is a big question in my family as to whether my Grandmother was brought up by her blood parents, or were they in fact her grandparents!? I reckon the people that brought her up were actually her parents, however my uncle believes otherwise. And this is why I cannot find the right birth certificate .... maybe it is time to look under the woman that actually brought her up!

Hi, I will try to be brief. Births etc are registered in quarters March, June, Sept & Dec. I can't remember the time span for registration but it is quite short so the actual birth date would be within the same or previous quarter. My gr gr grandmother had an illegitimate child in 1861 and he was registered in the area she lived. I do not know the circumstances but I am aware that she got married about 18 months later so this might be why she wasn't sent away. I would have thought that the birth would have to be registered in the correct mother's name as it is a legal document. Sorry I can't be more specific. Melanie

Quite often Girls/women were sent to workhouses to have their children even to the next county some parents were very hard on them.

Jeni, you had, and still have six weeks to register a birth, after the 1870's you were fined for late registration, so some certs may not give the correct date. People were sent away to have their babies, and it was not unknown for children to be brought up by their grandparents. Legal adoption did not start until about 1927. Ros

Also, the child I am referring to is my grandmother, however if her mum had her but it was out of marriage and the father didn't stay with her, did ladies / girls of the early 1900s tend to give birth to the baby in the same area they lived? Someone said to me that they were sent away to have the baby! Is this right? In this scenario though the grandparents kept the the child and brought her up as her mum's sister .... am I making sense? Jeni

I am struggling to find the RIGHT birth certificate for my Grandmother! Does anyone know how long after the birth did they have to register the child, or was there no time frame? I have the death certificate and this gives me a window of when she was born in, however there is one birth cert that is quite far out this window. I know that 1837online shows only when the birth was REGSITERED, so can this one still be the one? Also if a child was born with no registered father, and the grandparents take over the kid, are the grandparent able to be state they are the parents, when they are not the blood parents? By the way, if you uy a birth cert online through ONS, it costs £7 (if you have found the refs yourself). If you ask them to check once they have the refs and the cert doesn't have the mum you are askng for, they refund you £4, which I think is brill!!!