What percentage of births were registered in the 19th C?

[Guest]

Is there any estimate of the percentage of births that were not registered?
Some of my ancestors came from the courts in Liverpool and, when the need to register came in in 1837 it must have been so difficult to inform these illiterate, transient people of this.

If births were not registered did it cause difficulties? Two of my ancestors were living together and had seeral children in the 1880s but I cant find any registration for them. They only seem to have started registering their children once they married in 1896. Of course they may have been using an alias as Walter Frankish?Roseby had been in prison.

I would be very interested in your thoughts!

[Olde Crone Holden]

This is almost an impossible question to answer - there are olf course, no statistics zstating how many births were NOT registered!

However, before 1875 it was the responsibility of the REGISTRAR to seek out births and to register them. On another forum we were all depressed to read about the case of a Registrar in Liverpool who was charged with making false registrations of births and sent to prison - Registrars were paid by result in those days.

Have you looked for birth regs under both surnames names? Have you looked on Lancsbmd?

OC

[Little Nell]

All I can say is that I have found births for virtually all the people in my tree. You might need to just try the surname though, as babies were registered as "Male" or "Female" sometimes, without first names. It's also possible they were registered but the copies got lost before they reached the GRO so you could ask the relevant local register office.

As for causing difficulties - unlike today when we are always having to prove our identity and age for passports, pensions, bank accounts, driver's licences, mortages etc etc people in Victorian times didn't need all this paper. If their age/identity was in doubt, they'd have their baptism certificate.

[Velma Dinkley]

I'm sure that many did slip through the net as there are a few, particularly from the same family, that I have been unable to locate. Perhaps the poorly educated did not understand the need or know how to register the births, and if they moved around, the registrar wouldn't catch up with them. Then of course our ancestors could not read or write, and what with localised accents, who knows what got recorded as their names!! :D

[Vicky the Viking]

dont know about genuine non-registrations, but I know there are errors & ommissions in the GRO indexes, so its always worth contacting the registrars directly (as long as you have an idea of names/dates, and don't just ask them to trawl for children with father xxx). In the past I've found Liverpool quite helpful, and in one instance they told me about a birth I didn't know about (died in infancy so hadn't made the census) - this just from asking for another birth certificate and giving father's name as a checking point.

[Guy]

Despite people assuming many births were not registered the facts do not show this.
In rural areas the vast majority of births were registered. In large towns and cities the numbers of unregistered births was higher as it was easier to miss (conceal) such an event.
However when registrations have been compared there is no big jump after 1875 and "compulsory" registration which could be expected if large numbers had not been registered.
Cheers
Guy

[garstonite]

Hiya...and I notice this is your first post, so welcome to FTF....you might find this interesting..
http://streetsofliverpool.co.uk/ and it may give you an insight as to where your rellies lived..were your rellies from Toxteth or Everton by any chance ?......allan( in Garston,Liverpool)

[graleystives]

Many thanks for all your help.
Also thank you for the site - very interesting.
My relatives were living in the Southern end of the city centre and Toxteth: espcially around where the cathedrals are now; many of the streets have been cleared. Their addresses included Gilbert St, Upper Frederick Street, Lower Myrtle Street. Where I can find birth certificates/census entries they have a different address each time so I guess life was pretty precarious.
Many thanks again - your guidance is appreciated.