Genealogy Chat

Bingo! Thank you Sylvia. That was the variant I hadn't thought to try, another lesson learned!

How about this one from GRO???

Male child, but registered without a forename ........

HILL, - THOMPSON
GRO Reference: 1861 D Quarter in PETERBOROUGH Volume 03B Page 189

and this female child, again without a forename

HILL, - THOMPSON
GRO Reference: 1863 J Quarter in PETERBOROUGH Volume 03B Page 219

To be clear, I just want to make sure I haven't missed something obvious. If the records aren't there, then they aren't there and I'm not going to find them. But it would not be the first time that I had missed a record that someone else had been able to find ;-)

Civil registration came into force on 1st July 1837.

That wasn't quite my understanding. Parents had the responsibility to register births after 1875 and penalties were also introduced for late registration at that time, but I was under the impression that all births had to be (were supposed to be) registered from 1836 onwards - although it was the Registrar's responsibility, which was probably quite a challenge ;-)

However it was usually thought to be in the parents' and the child's interest for the child to be baptised but I have been unable to find a baptism either. But I'm only using online sources, perhaps the records have not yet been digitised (although the records for Yaxley are indexed on freeREG.

I still find it strange, tho', that I haven't been able to find either record, given that Richard's children from his first marriage were registered and at least one of them was baptised.

As I’m sure you know, there were no penalties for not registering births until 1875

I would have expected to find them there, too, but so far I have not found them. Might you have better luck?

I think your "if" is interesting. Might you know how prevalent unregistered births were around that time.

Richard Morton Hill's children from his first marriage were all registered.

IF their births were registered you will easily find them on either freebmd or the GRO index

I would appreciate some help, please, with finding birth and / or baptism records for Thomas Thompson Hill (abt 1862 and Fanny Hill (abt 1863). They were both apparently (in all subsequent records I have so far found) born in Yaxley, just south of Peterborough.
Their father was Richard Morton Hill (abt 1814), their mother Mary Ann Thompson abt 1826, in Yaxley). They married in Sutton St Edmund in 1861. He was a widower, his first wife, Ann Hewer (1811) having died (I have to assume, I have not so far found a death record for her).
From 1871 onwards the family lived in Ely, they were in the hotel trade and held the Queen Adelaide, and Cutters Inn. In C1861 Mary Ann was visiting a family in London (Shepherd, Holbrook); a Holbrook was a witness at her wedding.
Here's an extract from their C1871 entry:
Richard Morton Hill 55 Head
Mary [Ann] Hill
45
Wife
Charles [Frederick] Hill
21
Son <<< MMN Hewer
Emily Hill
18
Daughter <<< MMN Hewer
Thomas [Thompson] Hill
9
Son
Fanny Hill
8
Daughter