Genealogy Chat

wondered if anyone can answer my query -
I have received a birth cert today -
It's from 1839 - and is the one I wanted.

Where the date of birth is written there is also a time of birth.
It's the first time I've seen this.
I wondered if he could have been a twin -
but there is no other child of the same surname and district for that quarter.

Any thoughts??
Many thanks
Christine

In England and Wales the time of birth, in addition to the date, is only recorded for multiple births. So there must have been a twin (or maybe a triplet?).Maybe they were stillborn or died?

Thanks Michelle

Is there any way I could find out??
Understand there is a stillbirth register -
how would I access it??
I will check the deaths for the same quarter too.

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.

Yes - I've looked for same surname - same district etc. - no matches
nothing for that district in the deaths either.

looks like it may remain a mystery!

Thanks for your help
Christine

Very odd as all the sites i have looked at all say the say thing.Maybe the baby was stillborn and as reg of stillbirths wasn't compulsory until 1927 the baby death was not reg?The only examples i have seen of this were of multiple births.Maybe an idea to contact GRO and see what the explanation they have is.

Michelle

that's a good idea - will phone tomorrow

one thing I've just noticed too is that the date of birth was 20 May and the registration was 29 June -
maybe the mother was ill afterwards.

Christine

I have heard that in the early years of registration, some registrars thought they were required to record time as well as date of birth, so some early certs. have that information even for single births.

Gwyn

that might explain it - thanks Gwyn

I'll put on here what the GRO say

Christine

Hi Christine,

Have you tried checking the death registers for the same period?

One side of my family has so many twin births its crazy (lol one set are even on the cencus with "twin" in their names.)

I had a hunch one of my singleton births may be a twin, dunno why but I did, checked the death registers for the same quarter & there was a baby girl aged 0 for the same time in the right area.

Just an idea but might be worth looking maybe?

Gail

I also have a b. cert. with the time but definitely no sign of a twin. Probably an over zealous registrar in the early days of registration.
Angela

Perhaps also an eager to conform parent?

Registrations were new, the registrar asks, "When was the baby born?" and back comes the exact details??

WOW!!!

what a helpful & lovely bunch of people!

phoned the GRO at Southport -
they gave me the number for the district office that holds the actual books.

On ringing them - a lady went to look in the books -
found the one in question -

That particular registrar had put times down for every birth in the book!!

So amazing!!

The lady had never come across this before and she is also into family history - which meant that she really wanted to help me!

Christine

Nice result :)

I need to bookmark this.I think the vast majority know that a time on a certificate signifies a multiple birth.How wrong can we be!

I have an England twin, but nothing on either birth certificate for the time. However, on a lot of my Scottish birth certs they do have a time and they are without doubt single births.

Like a lot of things I am discovering on this 'hobby', it all depends............lol

maybe Mr John Walters the registrar of this cert -
was Scottish!!!!

this episode has also restored my faith in the GRO!!!

Christine

Christine
How great of John Walters to give the added information.

I think those early registrars had their own little quirks.
I have several birth certificates recorded by a particular registrar in Sussex. He always used the term 'late' when he was referring to a mother's maiden name.
Confusing !

Gwyn