Genealogy Chat

Just wondering how common it was for births not to be registered during the 1940s.

I have a g-aunt who was pregnant during the 1940s with at least 5-6 surviving children but no sign of their births at the GRO.

I can only find one child's birth registered.

Thanks Ever So!

Since it was wartime, I suppose there is the likelyhood of some records not reaching the GRO, but I would think it unlikely that 5 or 6 records would be lost. Are you certain they are not in the index?

Have you tried the register office local to where the births occurred?

Kath. x

registration was compulsory from 1875, where have you looked?

Hi Kath and Claire, I've been looking on the indexes on Ancestry as carefully as slowly as I can but I can only find one.

I'm a bit perplexed. I know some of the indexes are missing, but they mostly seem to be there for the appropriate years and there are just too many births of this family missing

BB

No offence meant, but are you sure that the children were born to your aunt's husband or partner. Could they be registered under a different name, or be registered under her maiden name for some reason?

Kath. x

And no offence taken at all Kath :-) I'm pretty sure they would have been registered as the father's surname.

My g-aunt married when she was 18 and they were quite a feisty family. There was always a scrap going on but they were a close family.

Your suggestion has got me thinking though - nothing surprises me with family history and I still haven't been shocked as yet; even with over 1000 in the tree ;-0

BB

hi buzzbee, i had a few problems with finding births and marriages on ancestory but i found them on roots just keep trying you will find them eventualy good luck trev

If you want to send the names and mother's maiden name and approximate birth dates to me by pm then I'll have a look to see if I can find any for you, but it will probably be tomorrow now as my son wants his computer back shortly.

Kath. x

Thanks Trevor, and thank you Kath, will pm

BB
x

Have sent you a pm with all but one of the births, and the parent's marriage.

Kath. x

I had a similar problem in finding birth entries for my dad and his siblings. I could only find 2 out of the 7 children under mothers maiden name of Pickin.All had the same father(Pelling). It was only later when i got in touch with my uncles that i found that my gran had put down different maiden names on the certs.My dad and his eldest brother had the name Palmer.The next 2 children had the mother's name of Day. The next child had Cotton and the last 2 had her true maiden name of Pickin.

I still have no idea why this was the case,but i wasted alot of time looking for the wrong names.I would say be really sure who you are looking for and get the certs were possible.

I have a similar thing in my tree - a second cousin of my dad's is not on the births index. I know he exists - my dad met him and his brother (who I have met) certainly has, too - but there is no sign of him, either and he was supposedly born c.1942/43.

Perhaps he too is one of the ones whose certificate never made to the GRO. He doesn't come up in the index, either - I never thought of WW2 being a factor. (I might just check the registrar didn't misunderstand and register him under his mother's maiden name - after all, with these confused vicars and parish clerks around, there's got to be a confused registrar too somewhere!)

I would have thought you'ld need the kid's birth certificate to get a ration book for the kid, and no one would want to be without a ration book in the war years.

Could they have been registered later on, I know that there was a time limit, but because of the War, they may have been registered months or even years later.

One thing I always check is the following quarter, a 1st dec birth 1945 could be in the index of the march quarter 1946.

Births have to be registered otherwise how do they get their National Insurance number later for work etc, also if they ever applied for a passport, they would need their birth certificate.

I have found a lot registered in the following quarter, and also in mothers maiden name and fathers name, the births were registered twice!!!

I have found all the births that BB was looking for apart from one. They were all registered in the name and at the time she thought they would be. BB had just missed them in the index.

Kath. x

Another scenario that could happen on any BMD listing wether it be scanned on Ancestry or on BMD is that the ORIGINAL listing has errors.
Dont forget these were produced probably before computers.
And these entries are copied from the COPIES of the originals that are sent to the GRO.
The administrators are human and entries can be missed or misread thats why often you see at the bottom of these listings a handwritten entry.
I know for a fact a marriage of some relatives in 1895 have been misread. Instead of Bridges the s has been taken for an R.
The numerous ways of spelling a surname would also cause a wee problem if you cant find some one.
The other scenario is that service men abroad may have their children registered away from the normal reg offices over here.
I am still looking for my cousins grandfather who was apparently born in Europe somewhere as her gt grandfather was stationed France ? Belguim, unfortunately she dosent know, so we are having to wait for the 1911 census!
Roll on next year.

Carol