Genealogy Chat

I have been trying to find the birth entry for my grandfather's sister. We thought she was born in 1922. I have found her death entry with her parents at age 18 in January 1941 so this seems to confirm that. BUT I have searched through 1837online from Jan 1922 to June 1923 and nothing, nada :-( It's unlikely that she was younger or else she would have been evacuated along with her brothers. Today I did discover that my great grandparents marriage is interestingly registered in December 1922 meaning she could have been born before that. But I also checked the dates for the maiden name and there is nothing for that either. Was it compulsary to register births at this time? Can anyone give me any other ideas? Thanks!!

Hi Angela This is really a mystery. I am pretty certain that births were legally required to be registered , but there are still circumstances to this day when people slip through the net for a variety of reasons. It is possible that she was never registered, and if she lived a fairly simple life, requiring no checks on her status, it is likely that it would never be picked up. Regards Maxine

Hi Angela, I have had the same problem. My grandmother was born in 1909 but she is nowhere to be seen on 1837, luckily I have managed to get the district of where she was born and I am going to have to apply there for her birth cert. Laurie

Yes it really is a mystery, both her brother's births are registered so it doesn't make sense that hers is not. Laurie, thanks for the tip. I may contact Portsmouth register office and see if they can help.

You could try and find her baptism by looking at the registers of the churches near where she grew up,sometimes they indicate when the child was born. George

Thanks George but it's really an unanswered question I was hoping to answer from the certificate. My grandfather was born in hospital in 1925 which was quite unusual. I wanted to see if it was also the case with the first born. I don't think the parish records would tell me that would they??

Hi They give name of child,address,parents names and sometimes they give an age. George

The birth could have been registered and then missed off the returns, or the index, since at both these points a person has to copy the original record to a second document and errors do occur, but since you have a fairly small timeband, if you know the parish they lived in a check of the baptism register could be useful and cheaper, I have managed to get lots of fasinating details of relatives born around 1920s from parish records,(addresses, occupations dob) and if they are at the local CRO, and you dont live too far away the information is free (or costs whatever they charge for a photocopy/fiche printout. Best of luck Pam

Thanks Pam. I will add this to my list of things to do when I can get to the UK and Portsmouth - hopefully some time next year. Thanks for all the offers of help with this but for now it will remain another one for my mystery file (getting bigger!)