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

[heathera1940]

One of my relatives gave birth to twin boys in 1953. She was 27 weeks. Both boys were stillborn. She does not know what happened to them or if they were registered. I cannot find a birth or death. Would they have had to be registered? Would the Hospital have kept the babies as she doesn`t remember anything apart from hearing one cry then on waking up was told both had died. I would like to find out more but have no living relatives, who would know. Any info as to where i could start would be a great help.
Regards, Nicola

[carol8353]

Heathera 1940 See my reply at message 5. Yes by 1953 still births should have been registered if the pregnancy lasted longer than 24 weeks. I presume you are talking about England or Wales here?

Have you looked at the full death indexes or just on Free BMD (not complete up to that date)

I expect it might be a bit too delicate to put the names up on here,so PM me with the info and I'll see what I can find out for you.

See Lizzie's reply number one below about the stillbirth register,and the link to more info.

Carol

[Rhianmusic]

Hi,

I am new to family research and wondered if anyone could help with a query I have about my Dads twin.

Apparently my Dads twin died at birth, I have checked for a death certificate but can't find one even though I know the exact date and names of both parents. As there isn't a death record I am assuming that the twin was stillborn and I don't know where to go to get a record of this - the twin was born in 1942.

Can anybody help please?

Many thanks

Rhian

[MonicaL]

Hi Rhian

Welcome to RootsChat 

Some advice from the GRO:

Current GRO policy on obtaining stillbirth certificates: "Due to the sensitive nature of stillbirth registrations, the procedure for ordering a certificate of the entry differs from other types of certificates. We will only send out the application form after we have been contacted by phone or in writing by the mother or father (if he is named on the certificate). In cases where the parents are deceased, a brother or sister can apply if they can provide their parents' dates of death."

Monica

[Ancilla]

Hi

Just read your post and felt compelled to write.  I work in  a local hosptial and many years ago following several phone calls from women whose babies had died or were stillborn.  Most of them never knew what happened to them and they were told to just go home and get on with it.  After lots of research I managed to locate an unmarked grave that contained approx 500 babies, some of the names could be established from  church records but those women were so pleased.  We had a memorial service and a headstone placed.  I have to say that is what I call job satisfaction.  What area are you looking at?

[Rhianmusic]

Hi,

Thanks for your message.

I have managed to get hold of the death certificate and the poor thing wasn't given a first name, it was a boy and his surname was Owens, he was born in the Ruabon district.

My Dad doesn't know what happened to his twin so I suspect as there is no mention of the stillborn twin on my Taid and Nains headstone that the baby would have been buried in a mass grave.

[Valda]

Hi

Even if the baby isn't recorded on the headstone, depending on when the grave plot was bought the baby may still be buried in the plot or buried in another family plot. It would still be worth contacting the local cemetery that you think the baby may be buried in because stillbirth babies' burials are/were recorded in cemetery registers - cemeteries were run as businesses. It is less common pre 1927 for the burials to be recorded in churchyards but some church registers to do acknowledge such burials before the C20th.


Regards

Valda

[maryd]

Hi Rhian

It might be worth checking your dad was definitely a twin before you launch into lengthy research....it is very easy to do - just take a look at you dad's birth cert - if he was a twin/ triplet etc, there will be an exact time of birth on the cert, as well as the date. As far as I know, single births have the date only on their certs, whereas multiple births also have a time.
maryd

[Rhianmusic]

Thanks for your reply Maryd.

I know for definate that my Dad was a twin as we have the stillborn certificate that's how we found out the twin was a boy. I needed to make sure the twin story was correct so I wasn't  researching a red hearing