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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Bee on Sunday 25 February 07 11:13 GMT (UK)

Title: Times on birth certs
Post by: Bee on Sunday 25 February 07 11:13 GMT (UK)
I have the birth certs for my gt grandfather and one of his younger brothers. Each certificate states the actual time of birth, does this mean that the informant in each case (the father) was being very informative or does it mean that it was the birth of a twin?, though from the census' it doesn't look likely.

Bee :)

Title: Re: Times on birth certs
Post by: Sueh2 on Sunday 25 February 07 11:18 GMT (UK)
Hi Bee,

The ones I have which have times on were all twins.

Sue
Title: Re: Times on birth certs
Post by: Arranroots on Sunday 25 February 07 11:20 GMT (UK)
Hello Bee

Opinions differ on this.  We have discussed it a few times before:

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,141714.0.html

kind regards, Arranroots  ;)

Title: Re: Times on birth certs
Post by: Bee on Sunday 25 February 07 11:29 GMT (UK)
thanks for the replies, looks like I've a bit more searching to do :)

Bee
Title: Re: Times on birth certs
Post by: chalkie48uk on Sunday 25 February 07 11:32 GMT (UK)
the other child could av died at childbirth as the case in 1 of mine
Title: Re: Times on birth certs
Post by: Bee on Sunday 25 February 07 11:51 GMT (UK)
the other child could av died at childbirth as the case in 1 of mine


that's a possibility, and I suppose back in the 1840's it could happen twice in the same family.

I've just searched through 12 pages on ancestry (looking at the name Green) but couldn't find another entry to match my gt grandads', so maybe the registrar was just being attentive to detail or the informant was a bit miffed at the loss of sleep as both births occured in the early hours just before dawn ::)

Bee :)
Title: Re: Times on birth certs
Post by: chalkie48uk on Sunday 25 February 07 11:54 GMT (UK)
hi
have u checked deaths for the same period of the birth
Title: Re: Times on birth certs
Post by: mshrmh on Sunday 25 February 07 12:07 GMT (UK)
The guide on the site by Barbara Dixon
http://home.clara.net/dixons/Certificates/births.htm
has some useful information - I'm not sure I'm able to quote it because of copyright, but the gist is that strictly times indicate multiple births, but some registrars (she quotes an example) did their own thing and put times on all certificates.

Title: Re: Times on birth certs
Post by: Little Nell on Sunday 25 February 07 12:12 GMT (UK)
In the early days of civil registration, there was much confusion amongst the individual registrars about what to include on the certificates.  I have a time of birth on a birth certificate but the child was definitely not a twin.  This was in 1838.  Around the same time, a different registrar entered the names of the parents of a child naming the mother only by her maiden name, no "X formerly Y ".  Caused my father no end of confusion 30 years ago.  He assumed that the child was illegitimate even though the father was named.

Nell
Title: Re: Times on birth certs
Post by: Arranroots on Sunday 25 February 07 12:58 GMT (UK)
I should add the usual caveat - that times were usual on Scottish certificates, so if you are looking in Scotland it does not indicate a multiple birth.

 ;)