Male death, aged 1 minute

[sally]

Quite by chance I discovered a great uncle that nearly was......... this poor little chap was born prematurely in 1877 and I am wondering whether he was actually stillborn, or whether he was indeed breathing when born but died immediately afterwards.
I know that it was common practice for nurses and doctors to quietly put "unfeasible" babies to one side and let nature take it's course, so wonder if this was the case here.

The only thing on the certificate was "premature birth" and under the age column was "one minute".

Any thoughts please

[Tom Tom]

A birth and death certificate were only issued if the baby was born alive, even if it died soon after (as the case appears to be here). If the baby had been still born then a still birth certificate would have been issued so that the baby could be buried.

So, it would seem as though he was born, but died soon after. I have a premature babies death certificate when he was 31 hours old - his cause of death is "premature birth and convulsions".

[sally]

Thank you Tom - that has helped.

[Janet in Yorkshire]

My friend's mother gave birth to twins - according to the baptism register, one was a stillbirth and the other baby lived for half an hour. It was a home birth and the live child was baptised by the doctor.
There is a birth and death registration for this little girl and she was buried in the village churchyard.

Jay

[Little Nell]

Stillbirths weren't registered until 1927 on a separate register.

My husband had an elder brother who died aged 2 minutes. He wasn't premature, but born as the result of an emergency caesarian (the handling of the labour was appalling and nowadays would result in people being sued). The cause of death was failure to breathe.

[Tom Tom]

Stillbirths weren't registered until 1927 on a separate register.

My husband had an elder brother who died aged 2 minutes. He wasn't premature, but born as the result of an emergency caesarian (the handling of the labour was appalling and nowadays would result in people being sued). The cause of death was failure to breathe.

You still needed to get a certificate of still birth in order to be able to bury the still born baby. (At least I think you did)

[Tom Tom]

See Mary from Italy's article in the magazine:

The Death of Baby Gordon

[Elizabeth Herts]

My grandfather had a sister who was born in Glasgow in 1897 (his father was in the Royal Navy and they lived there for a while).

I remember my great-aunt very well. My mum said that she was a twin, with a brother, but he didn't survive. My great-aunt had talked about it.

However, I found her birth registration, and there was no other Purkis registered.

I recently found the family on the 1911 census - for the number of children alive was entered 3 and the number of children born alive was 3. No mention of the little lad at all, so he must have been stillborn.

How sad that there is no record of this little chap at all. The family remembered him and talked of him, but it was if he had never existed.

[Anne in Carlisle]

It is sad. One of the reasons I like family history is that it gives recognition to ALL those we know of and not just those who survived to adulthood. When there is no certificate we only have family memories to remember them by.

Anne