Genealogy Chat

Can anyone help I have a relative who was born in Birmingham North but her birth was not registered. Where can she get a birth certificate from.She was born in 1928 so health records cannot help....Alan

Alan, are you sure it was not registered or possibly not sent to GRO from local register office?

Keith,definateley not registered,Father would not accept she was his child...Alan

Baptism record? You'd need to have some idea of where she was born to find local churches - and of course she may not have been baptised ...

Jill

If a birth was never registered, she won't be able to get a birth certificate.

Are you sure she wasn't registered under her mother's name? It wasn't necessary for a father to acknowledge a child before the birth could be registered.

I'm pretty sure she will be registered. Look under the mother's maiden name and also in the qtr. after she was born as you have 6 weeks to register a birth and if the father was disputing paternity then it may have been a few weeks before the mother registered the birth.

If you want to give the name of the person and mother's maiden name we can look for the birth for you.

Kath. x

Kathleen,details as follows Elizabeth Rhoda Stevens born 16.08.1928 Dudley Road Hospital Birmingham. Mothers maiden name Millar..Alan xx

Is Stevens her birth name or her married name? Had a quick look but didnt find anything.

It maybe that the hospital had separate BMD record books at the Birmingham Registrar' s Office which would make it easy for them to search for the birth. Find their phone number and set out your problem. They may well be able to help. Many names are missing from the BMD indexes as is shown by the handwritten entries. There has to be an answer

I can't find a birth for her on the complete index and I have looked 2 years either side of 1928 and also for the first names the other way round.

Are you sure that the mother wasn't married to someone else at the time, or was it her husband who denied being the father? Perhaps she is registered under the name of whoever WAS the father.

Contacting the local record office for where the birth took place would be my next step in case the birth got missed of the copy sent to the GRO.

Very few people didn't register a child's birth at that time because they would have been fined.

Kath. x

Hi
Im quite new to this but i had a similar problem. I had my nans madien name and date of birth butb could not find any record for her birth.As far as we were concerned her birthday was jan 1912.After hours of looking and a lot of help from gr people i found what turned out to be her. As she was born out of wedkock she was registred as Rose millicent and her mothers surname.We all knew her as millie. Also she was 5 yrs older than we thought and was born in the febuary. I presume this was because of the stigma attached at that time. So dont give up they are there somewere.

Good luck

When did the parents marry?

Rose

Has she ever travelled abroad? I'm fairly certain she would have needed a birth certificate to get a passport. Her birth could have also been registered as Stephens Stephen or Steven.

My grandmother was the first relative I started looking for some 9 years ago. I had her death certificate and her marriage certificate. Her age on both agreed she was born 1893. I looked through the indexes 1/4 by 1/4 and finally found her born in 1890

Rose,Parents married 1919 Southampton,Moved to Birmingham.Trouble was Father was shown a boy when he visited hospital,when Mother came home she had a girl who he never accepted.He was not a nice man so Mother would not go against him. I have been in touch with registrars office at Birmingham who can find no trace.

I'm surprised that a birth in 1928 was in hospital, as most births would have been at home at that time.

If the birth WAS in hospital then it would definitely have been registered as the hospital would have had details of the birth so it would have been difficult to NOT register.

Kath. x

There is only one birth in 1928 to match J/M ,registered Birmingham N,

Lilian EE Stevens,mnn--Smith,,,,

as Rose says hospitals births were very few and far between,unless it was a private nursing home,or part annex to a main hospital,?

Kathleen Bell,your not the only one who is surprised,I have just been informed that a number of searches have been made in the past and no one can understand how this could happen.Hospital only keeps records for 25years so another line of enquiry is closed.I shall keep trying.........Alan

Alan,

Just because it doesnt appear in GRO index,,doesnt mean it doesnt exsist,as it may have been missed off during the transcribing at then Someset House,,,,,

Have you applied to GRO Southport ,?

Kay,I believe that she would have been in hospital because she lost two children at birth before Elizabeth was born..........Alan

Hi Alan,

I think I would be inclined to apply direct to GRO Southport,, ,there maybe other things that would need to be concidered,

Thank you all very much I am sending all details to Birmingham Registrar who will take matter up with Chief Registrar for me.I will keep you all posted .... Alan