This is crucial because it may mean you are able to find your ancestor on a census return, especially if you have not found them in a census index, which could lead to you discovering other information about them and their family. If the birth took place in the workhouse, that is normally the address that is given by the master of the workhouse when he registered the birth. If the child was illegitimate, and the mother lived in a village, she may have journeyed to a town to give birth because of the stigma and shame attached to having an illegitimate child at the time.
Please bear in mind that the address given is only the address of where she was living at the time of the birth and may not necessarily be her permanent address.
This column detailed the full name of the child, but in some cases the parents had not yet named them, so this was occasionally entered as male or female. The name a child was given at birth may not be the name they became known as. If the child was baptised as a Christian within 12 months after their birth was registered, the name in the register could be changed to reflect this.
Description
If a person has two forenames, it was not uncommon for the person to change their order. Nora Alice could become known as Alice Nora, or they could drop a name altogether.
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When my great-grand uncle, James Ernest Hill, had children in and , he was known as James Ernest in and Ernest James in If a child was illegitimate , as was the case for my ancestor William Carrington Baker, you may find that the name given to the child at the time of their birth gives you a clue as to the identity of the father. Kate was known by the surname of Richardson in later life. This column was where the gender of the child was recorded - until , the certificate stated boy or girl, but after that date, male or female was entered.
If the parents decide to give their child an unusual name, it may not always be possible to tell the sex of the child.
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If the parents were illiterate, and could not tell what was being written in the register, a mistake may have been made at the time of registration. The father's details were were required to be entered on the certificate when the parents were married to each other, with only one parent signing the register, but if the parents were unmarried, then the father's name and occupation were often left blank, as had been decreed by an Act of Parliament in And it be enacted that the father or mother of every child born in England Some registrars, however, entered the name of the father even when the parents were unmarried.
The situation changed in , with the law then stating that 'no putative father is to be allowed to sign an entry in the character of Father'. The Registration Act of stated that 'the putative father of an illegitimate child cannot be required as father to give information respecting the birth. The name, surname and occupation of the putative father of an illegitimate child must not be entered except at the joint request of the father and mother; in which case both the father and mother must sign the entry as informants. If the parents were both in attendance at the register office, then the father's name could be recorded on the certificate regardless of whether the couple were married or not.
Both parents signed the register. If the mother was unmarried, only her sole name was entered on the birth certificate, but if she was married, her married and maiden names were both recorded. If she had been previously married, her previous married name may be entered, such as Mary Dunkley late Clarke formerly Reynolds, as shown in the example below. There are, however, pitfalls to take into consideration when studying this information. Although a certificate contains a wealth of information, it can sometimes lead you to progress in the wrong direction.
After William's death in , she went on to marry Samuel Cole on 9 December She had a daughter, Harriett, with Samuel on 25 September , but her name was stated as being Elizabeth Cole formerly Barker on Harriett's birth certificate. Had I not already found Elizabeth's marriage to William Barker, this would have been very confusing, and could have led me to believe I was tracing the wrong family. To make matters even more confusing, the maiden surname written on the birth certificate may not necessarily be the name the mother had at birth.
If a child was born as Florence Adams and her mother had remarried a man called Davis, Florence may have used her stepfather's name. Although they were unmarried at the time, she stated her name was Mary Ann Hill formerly Minton. Minton - the birth of daughter Elizabeth in Pecker - her marriage to William Hill in I am still, even after 15 years, attempting to track down her birth registration, although I have tried all variants of Minton, Pecker and Packer. The informant of the birth is asked to confirm whether the information recorded on the certificate is accurate before signing the entry.
One problem with this, however, was that many people were not able to read and write, signing their name by 'making their mark' with an X. If a person could not read, they would not be able to tell if the information was recorded accurately or not.
Birth certificates - Kent County Council
The mother is usually the preferential informant because she knows that she is the child's mother. The next preferred informant is the father if they are married. If the parents were unmarried, the father and mother both signed as informants.
If the mother or father do not sign the certificate as informants, it could also be someone who was present when the birth occurred. Please bear in mind that if the informant of the birth was only distantly related to the baby, or was not connected at all, that the information they gave may be inaccurate.
If the birth took place in the workhouse, the master of the institution could sign the certificate. If the informant was illiterate, they just left their 'mark', which was usually an X signifying they could not read or write. Microfiche indexes to birth, death or marriage registrations in England and Wales from can be found in our Newspapers and Family History zone. Both of these resources are only available from within the National Library building.
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