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Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => Topic started by: argyllshiregirl on Thursday 29 April 21 15:17 BST (UK)
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Hello,
Perhaps I am not understanding the registration system for births. I am searching for my mother's half sister, born Nancy McGregor, some time between 1929 - 1934. She was the 3rd child born to a single mother who couldn't support them all. A relative arranged for 'wee Nancy' to be adopted. The family was from Argyll and I did find a birth registration for a Nancy Evaleen MacGregor born 1931 in North Knapdale, which might fit. However, there is another registration for that name, that year, in Kilmore and Kilbride, Argyll. Does this point perhaps to an adoption, and a new birth registration? Then I noticed several other Nancy M(a)cGregors on that same page who seem to be registered in 2 different places. Thank you for helping me understand the meaning of this.
Mary
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It is likely to be same name for different people registered
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The thing is that the names are so unusual. How many Nancy Evaleen MacGregors would be born in Argyll in a given year? I have never even heard the given name Evaleen until now. Another person on that page on SP is Nancy Meiklejohn McGregor, also listed twice, same year, different locations. Can there be 2 people with that name? These are too recent to look at, and would have to be ordered, which is not possible right now. I was just wondering if there are reasons why someone might be registered twice in 2 places. My hope was that that reason might be adoption.
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Okay, I partially answered my own question by digging through SP's guides. I still don't know if this is our Nancy or why she would be born away from home. Better hospital facilities? Or born where an adoptive family was living? This is what it says on SP "You sometimes find two index entries for a birth. This applies from 1855 to 1934 when a child was born outside the registration district of their parents’ usual residence. The birth was registered in the district where the child was born. The registrar then sent a copy to the registrar of the district where the parents lived. The details were transcribed into that register. Both entries are indexed. If you order a birth certificate it will be from the original, not the transcribed register entry."
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Not much help in finding your Nancy but my mother's birth was registered twice.
Mum was born in Edinburgh in 1918 but her mother's home address is given as Kirkwall, Orkney so the birth was registered in both places.
Dorrie
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If the surname on the index is the same on both cases (McGregor), then the notes from SP explain the why.
Sometimes for illegitimate births and where the father wishes/ed their name to appear on the register, there are 2 registrations, one with his surname and the other the surname of the mother but the location is the same (unless you have the situation you are looking at with different locations coming in to play. By logic, you would then have 4 registrations in two places with two surnames ::)...I think!).
When you look at the actual birth entry on the register, it will, for example, read 'born here but usual residence there' with given addresses for both.
Monica
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Thanks!
To expand on that, what would be the case in the event of an adoption? Would yet another birth registration be issued with a new surname?
Mary
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Yes, there would be. See additional notes here www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=848141.0
Monica
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Sometimes for illegitimate births and where the father wishes/ed their name to appear on the register, there are 2 registrations, one with his surname and the other the surname of the mother but the location is the same.
That's different. It is still just one birth certificate but the birth of an illegitimate child whose father signs the register is indexed twice, once by the father's name and once by the mother's.
That raises the interesting possibility that the same birth certificate might be indexed under three surnames if it was a case of a married or widowed woman having an illegitimate child. I don't think I've ever actually seen that but it is possible.
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It is possible Forfarian.
I have a close family member who was illegitimate - born in 1934 in Edinburgh. His mother was a widow of some years and she look the child's father to Court. The gentleman in question admitted paternity.
The birth is indexed under 3 surnames - Mother's maiden surname, Mother's married surname and Father's surname. All entries have the same index number.
Dorrie
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On checking his marriage in 1965 and death in 1988 they are all indexed under the 3 surnames too.
Dorrie
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Thanks for checking, Dorrie.
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I have 12 births in my family tree from the 1860s to the 1930s where there are two birth certificates. They were where the birth took place in one district and the family home was in another district. The birth would be registered in the birth parish and that record transcribed into the 'home' district register. In the column with the registrar's signature it should have words to the effect of "transcribed from the register of ........ district". The transcribed one often has the registered date a day or two after the original birth certificate. The date of birth is unchanged between the two documents.
This often occurred in the first birth in a family and often where the mother would go to stay with her mother for the birth; and presumably learn from her experience in such matters. It was also before the days of most births taking place in a maternity hospital, when it usually took place at home.
ADP
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Yes, that was the standard procedure.
It's easy to tell which is which.
The situation described by ADP results in two index listings with different references.
If the references in the index are the same it's one record indexed twice (or more), whether it's a birth, marriage or death. This can refer to someone who is illegitimate, or someone who is legitimate but known by a stepfather's surname, or a woman who has been married more than once.
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Thankyou argyllshiregirl, you answered my question before I even put it on here. My Cousin once removed was born in Stirling, late October 1918 and registered there on 1st Nov and Transcribed on 2nd Nov in Edinburgh, where his parents normally resided. One puzzling question answered.