Need a little help with a death,maybe a stillborn?

[bagpuss1971]

:)Hello,I have a query,I hope someone can give me some advice!

A friend of the family gave birth to a girl 10th June 1971,she hasn't really spoken much about it until now.All she has is a receipt for £4,to cover funeral costs,dated 9th July 1971.I have done a quick search on the surname, XXX but I haven't come across anything yet - still getting to grips with it!!!

She doesn't even know is she was alive or stillborn,she was apparently deformed and the nurses just took her away immediately.She has expressed her wish recently to find out what happened to her baby,so I am trying to help her.
I am presuming that if she has a receipt for a funeral,that there would be a death certificate,can anyone shed some light on that please?

Also,if the baby was stillborn,how is that registered - this would be great to know as my Nan also had a stillborn child in the 40s and I would love to find out about that.

She would love to know where she is buried,this little receipt she has says she was collected from the hospital in West Bromwich,so I thought she may have gone to the closest cemetery.

Any help,advice or ideas would be great,I do hope we can help her out somewhat.

bagpuss

Moderator comment: surname removed - please exchange such information by Personal Message or reply in general terms as this is quite recent.

[LizzieW]

You could do a search on Ancestry or Findmypast for deaths of a baby with the surname of your friend.  The birth would be registered in June quarter of 1971, or possibly the next quarter as the funeral appears to have been in July 1971.  Of course, if it wasn't born alive, then there wouldn't be an entry in the birth register, but the child would have been registered in the stillbirth register.   From the GRO site 

Due to the sensitive nature of stillbirth registrations, only the mother or father of the child is able to apply for a certificate. The parent must be named on the birth certificate to do this. Should the parents be deceased, a brother or sister can apply if they can provide their parents’ dates of death.

If you follow this link  http://www.rootschat.com/links/07v8/   you can get full details.

£4 sounds very cheap even for 1971 and my guess, if the baby was badly deformed is that it was stillborn, and the £4 was to cover the funeral director's costs only.  What used to happen then to stillborn babies (if they were not put in the hospital incinerator) was that they were put into the coffin of an adult deceased person, who would not have been a relative and thus buried without any notification of the burial place.  I doubt the relatives of the adult deceased would have known anything about it.

Lizzie

[Arranroots]

Hi Bagpuss - thanks for the PM

There's an interesting timeline here:

http://www.ayrshiresands.co.uk/history%20sands.htm

It actually makes quite chilling reading ... 

If your friend still has the certificate it might prove enlightening.

 

[bagpuss1971]

Thank you both for your replies,they are of so much help.

The link to the timeline is great,very informative.
I think I may have trouble finding my nans stillborn baby,my Dad has only got a rough year,but it is something to work on.

I tried to phone GRO for a stillborn certificate application form,for both my friend and myself,but forgot it was Good Friday!!
So much to take in!!
bagpuss

[angelan]

My father told me he had a younger sister Margaret whom he thought was stillborn (1920s) He was about 5 yrs old at the time.

I searched on FreeBMD and found a birth registration for
XFamily SurnameX female, mother (XMother's maiden surname)

During the same quarter there was a death registration in the same district for Female XFamily SurnameX

As my grandmother's surname is quite unusual this had to be her. My dad was too young to remember any details other than the sadness of loosing a sister. I'm glad the family gave her a name as she is Margaret in my family tree rather than 'female'

Dad has no idea either what happened to his young sister. I don't expect the family talked much about it and dad's older siblings are no longer here to ask.

Angela

[carol8353]

Just for info,did you know that still births were not registered before July 1927.
Around the same date as adoptions became legally registered too.

" Still birth registration was introduced on 1 July 1927 to help protect infant life, provide a valuable source of statistical information and to give parents the opportunity to have their child officially acknowledged.

A still born child is a child born after the 24th week of pregnancy who did not breathe or show any other signs of life."

Carol

[angelan]

Just for info,did you know that still births were not registered before July 1927.
Around the same date as adoptions became legally registered too.

" Still birth registration was introduced on 1 July 1927 to help protect infant life, provide a valuable source of statistical information and to give parents the opportunity to have their child officially acknowledged.

A still born child is a child born after the 24th week of pregnancy who did not breathe or show any other signs of life."

Carol

The baby I mentioned in my previous post died in 1927, so I have just checked when her birth and death were registered and it was the Jun qtr. Perhaps Margaret wasn't a stillbirth after all, but was delivered alive but died shortly afterwards. She obviously didn't get taken home as the registration district for both is not where the family lived but Birmingham which is about 12 miles away.

Angela

[bagpuss1971]

Thank you again for these replies - I am really glad that you found out about Margaret, Angela.
That is similar to my Dad and Aunts situation - they know that Nan had a few miscarriages,then carried this little one to 7 months- he was apparently born and seemed perfect.This would have been in the 1940s.However,that is all they know.

I am grateful for the date info Carol,as on one side we have a few stillborns that an old Aunt has mentioned and I have found some burial records for stillborns of the same names around the same dates,but they were all in the 1900s,so am I correct in thinking I may never be able to link these babies to my family?
bagpuss

[bagpuss1971]

Hello,

Just wanted to let you all know that we found the burial record for our family friends little one - she was indeed taken to the local cemetery, and is buried in a grave that has just babies in it,so that was nice to find out.We have the plot number too,and even though it is just a grassed area,it has put her mind at rest so much.I have also given her the number to apply for the stillborn certificate - so from both of us thank you for all your help.
bagpuss