Unconfigured Ad Widget

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

My mother's Birth Certificate

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • My mother's Birth Certificate

    After years of family research I have, at last, obtained my mother's birth certificate. Mum was born in Kildare, Ireland, the daughter of an English soldier. Her mother was born in Dundalk. These events occurred before the creation of the Irish Republic. Mum lived her entire life without a birth certificate - she had a baptism certificate with a birth date on it which appears to have satisfied the British authorities when she applied for her passport and her pension. The birth certificate raises a few questions!
    The birth certificate gives the date of birth as 18 Sept 1908 and the date of registration as 9 Dec 1908. (Was that legal?)
    The baptism certificate has a birth date of 20 Sept 1908 and a baptism date of 18 Oct 1908.
    I vaguely remember that my mother said for the first few years of her life she had celebrated her birthday on 18 Sept until they 'discovered' that it should have been on the 20th.
    To me it seems more likely that the baptism cert is correct and that an error was made when they eventually got around to the registration.
    Any comments please?
    Shirley

  • #2
    I think the baptism record would probably be the most accurate as it was lest than a month before she was baptised.

    Did it say who registered the birth? You know what men are like for dates!!!

    Just a thought.
    Lin

    Searching Lowe, Everitt, Hurt and Dunns in Nottingham

    Comment


    • #3
      You are allowed 42 days to register a birth. Any later and you are fined.

      I agree the baptism is more likely to have the correct birth date on it as many people were still more concerned with the church than with the nosey parkering civil authorities.

      OC

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Lin Fisher View Post
        I think the baptism record would probably be the most accurate as it was lest than a month before she was baptised.

        Did it say who registered the birth? You know what men are like for dates!!!

        Just a thought.
        Her mother registered the birth - maybe she was more concerned with getting it done than with accuracy!

        Comment


        • #5
          Quote from website of Irish GRO:

          'A birth should be registered within three months of the date of birth.'

          Is this different from UK regulations?
          Shirley

          Comment


          • #6
            Shirley

            Yes, different! It has always been 42 days in England and Wales.

            I didn't realise that Ireland had its own rules - I would have thought that as it was part of the UK at that time that the rules would have been the same but hey! I live and learn! Sorry if I misled you, it was unintentional.

            OC

            Comment


            • #7
              You know, OC, how the Irish always have to be different! (I only just came across the regulations on the Irish site and they may well have been different in 1908!) I just cannot imagine that my grandfather would have ignored the regulations as he was a regular soldier.
              There is no comment about late registration on the certificate. Maybe they got away with it or my grandfather was away at the time. My grandmother already had three young children by her first husband as well as my uncle Will who would have been about one at the time (five children under10!)
              Shirley

              Comment


              • #8
                The Irish have always had a healthy disregard for registering births in both the UK and Ireland!! However, they always made sure the child was baptised at the very local church where they lived! Their excuse has always been that to register a child with so many other children in tow was never a high priority, especially in Ireland where the register offices were not as well placed as in the UK, and often had to be arrived at after walking miles in wet and miserable conditions. Easy for us to arrive now in our comfortable cars/bus/rail but think back to what a family would have to do 100 years ago!

                I have one certificate which caused me some grief when I was told my grandmother was born in Sheffield and the certificate appeared to indicate Portsea, but on closer examination I realised that the certificate I had was a baptismal certificate which of course that is what you get from the Army Index. I was able to get another certificate showing her birth was indeed Sheffield a few weeks prior to her baptism at Portsea.

                Janet
                Last edited by Janet; 07-07-12, 11:03.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by Janet View Post
                  ..........I realised that the certificate I had was a baptismal certificate which of course that is what you get from the Army Index.
                  Janet
                  I have never used the Army Index for a birth record so I was unaware of this. Another note to add to my memoranda! My mother's baptism cert shows every sign of being the original one (about 104 years old now!)

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Interesting. My father always thought his birthday was Oct 2nd--at least that's what his mother told him--until he joined the RAF & got a birth cert that says he was born on Oct 4th. It was rather convenient as far as celebrating his birthday as we took our choice of dates, but we tended to believe his mother rather than the paperwork. This thread suggests the problem may have been more common than we thought.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      My grandfather always celebrated his birthday on 27 November. This is the date of birth recorded in the village church bp register, albeit some time later when he was baptised on 5 July 1868.
                      But according to my grandfather's birth certificate, he was born on 26 December 1867.
                      However, this has to be incorrect, because the birth was registered and the certificate issued on 24 December 1867.

                      You can't always believe what you see!

                      Jay
                      Janet in Yorkshire



                      Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Janet in Yorkshire View Post
                        My grandfather always celebrated his birthday on 27 November. This is the date of birth recorded in the village church bp register, albeit some time later when he was baptised on 5 July 1868.
                        But according to my grandfather's birth certificate, he was born on 26 December 1867.
                        However, this has to be incorrect, because the birth was registered and the certificate issued on 24 December 1867.

                        You can't always believe what you see!

                        Jay
                        Well, I guess if there was a fine for late registration, people took a pragmatic view of what birth date was declared!
                        Margaret

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          I don't think late registration came into it - I think the registrar may already have been celebrating Christmas. What he entered on the cert was impossible!

                          Jay
                          Janet in Yorkshire



                          Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Something similar occurred with OH's grandfather, born in Letterkenny, Donegal in 1875. The birth was registered by his aunt on the 18th October and the birth date was stated to be the 15th October. However, I subsequently found his baptism in the 3rd Prebyterian Church, Letterkenny on the 22nd July 1875 and after correspondence with the Donegal Ancestry Centre, the entry was checked and found to be accurate. I was informed it was a legal requirement to register a birth within 21 days and that it was very likely Aunt Hannah (who also registered another niece's birth at the same time) had fudged the birth date to avoid a fine.

                            Of course, it was not until I had gone through all this process that OH informed me they had always celebrated his grandfather's birthday in July :(

                            Beverley



                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Janet in Yorkshire View Post
                              I don't think late registration came into it - I think the registrar may already have been celebrating Christmas. What he entered on the cert was impossible!

                              Jay
                              Oops! must get some new glasses
                              Margaret

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X