Genealogy Chat

delicate subject i know

if you know that there has been a child born dead and its gone full term how do you go about finding out the details ?

any suggestions

jullia x

am waiting with bated breath

j x

Thanks for that Christine dont quite no what to do both parents are still alive not going to ask them details julia x

Thanks anyway

julia x

yes i am i will try that

thanks again

julia x

If the stillborn child's parents are still alive you won't be able to get the stillbirth certificate. It's only the parents who can have access and if the parent's are deceased then only siblings of the stillborn child can have access. No one else.

If you know the date of the birth you may find burial details in parish records but probably not.

Depending on what year you are talking about, some stillbirth children or children who died as babies were buried in another persons coffin (someone who was being buried at the same time - not necessarily a relative).

Kath. x

Thanks for that kath as far as i know he was buried on his own
we are only talking about 40 years ago

julia x

Hi Julia,

Even quite recently babies are buried along with other people being buried at the same time.

My husband's baby brother who died in the 1940's aged 12 hours, was buried with a two year old girl who was being buried at the same time.

Kath. x

oh dont quite no what to say would like that i dont think

julia x

We were quite shocked when we first found out - but we were told that it was quite a common practice, and it also saved the parents the cost of a funeral.

After thinking about it for a while, we have come to the conclusion that it was actually quite a comforting thought that this little scrap of a baby wasn't buried alone and that the two children were buried together.

Kath. x

Put like that i suppose it is thanks

julia x