Stillbirths

[Carly287]

Hi everyone,

We have a stillbirth certificate,as my uncle was stillborn in 1955. He wasn't given a name.

[stanmapstone]

This is the certificate required under the 1874 Act
Stan .

[Hampshire Lass]

I've been frantically searching for some children for a couple between 1751 and 1756 to prove that the couple who had children after 1756 are the couple who married in 1751.    The first baptism in 1756 was a private one and this child was one of many. I had thought that maybe they had stillbirths between 1751 and 1756 but because I couldn't find birth and death records I couldn't see how this could be.

Am I reading this thread correctly.....that if they were stillborn in the 18th century they wouldn't have a burial record in the parish records?

If that's so then perhaps they baptised their first child privately thinking he may not survive.  Or am I clutching at straws?

Best wishes HL

[stanmapstone]

There would only be baptism and burial records at that time. Obviously there would be no baptism record for a still born child, and unlikely to be a burial record, depending on the minister of the parish.
Stan

[Hampshire Lass]

Thanks Stan...that makes me feel a little more confident I have the right couple 
I had been thinking there should be parish records for the missing children.

[stanmapstone]

In the excellent "The Family Tree Detective" by Colin D. Rogers, in the section on Bishops' Transcripts, he says
"...and in late seventeenth-century Chorley neither stillbirths nor the marriage of parishioners in other parishes were transcribed into the BTs." Which seems to imply that stillbirths were entered into the parish register.

Stan

[Hampshire Lass]

How strange to put them in the parish records but not transcribe them to the BTs