Genealogy Chat

Hi, I apologize if this is in the wrong thread. Can someone please tell me why on both my birth record and my half brothers birth record on this site the year of birth is out by a year? Many Thanks

In what way ?

The gro will have your birth ref to check or freebmd


Births have to be registered within 6 weeks of the birth

If someone has a late November or December birth the registration couid have been done Jan so will show in the first quarter of the next year

For instance my dad was born late dec 1907 and his mum reg the birth late January 1908 so he shows in March qtr 1908

His actual birthdate is correct on the birth certificate

my mum was born 23rd nov 1918 and she is reg 1919 march quarter

Which records are you looking at?

In which month were you born?

Roughly half of all birth years are out on genealogy sites, like Genes, because they are calculated by subtracting the age on a census from the year of the census.

As the censuses were all taken in the middle of a year, half the entries will be inaccurate. So, if you are shown as being 5 on the 1881 census, Genes would show your birth year as 1876. Correct if your birthday is between January and the census date, but incorrect if you were born in the rest of the year.

Not quite sure why yours is out, though, as you aren't old enough to be on any available census.

Andysmum -

Anna's talking about birth records, not censuses.

Thank you for your replies and I apologize for my late reply. I was born in December 1984 and my half brother was born late November 1991 however when searching for ourselves the information it advises is 1985 and 1992 so I assume that the registrations of our births weren't filled until the beginning of January hence showing the following year.

Many thanks to you all for taking the time to reply to my thread

Anna

Yes, a birth c 19/20th November could be registered beginning January allowing for the 6 weeks grace and would show in the March Quarter returns (Jan/Feb/March). Late December birth could be registered up to just pre mid February and would hit that same Quarter. If parents were quick off the mark, births would be registered the same Quarter as they actually happened.

I wonder how many babies born around Christmas/New Year ever get registered in the December Quarter !

Our dad was born 28th dec so no chance of registering his birth then

Ladies stayed in for 6 weeks after a birth and didn’t venture out till they had been churched

The thoughts then was childbirth was unclean and the mum has to be cleansed by a service to allow her to venture out again

Hence the six week time limit to register a birth which still applies

I was born between Christmas and New Year and Dad went to register me the next day.
Apparently I was due on 23rd and he had found out the times that the office would be open for registration.

Shirley,
I remember Mum telling me that she walked about 2 miles to church carrying my older brother in her arms as a newborn, so that she could be 'churched'
This was January 1937.
The vicar told her that she could have waited, but she was raised in a little Welsh village, where that was the custom.

Gwyn

We lived in south east London but I remember my mum telling me about new mums being churched

She did it for each of for the eldest children born from 1930 up to 1939 as it was traditional

The war then stopped many things

She had our youngest sister at home in 1949 but never followed the tradition for the last 4 children

We were all christened though

My mother was apparently late getting churched ................. I was born in early January, and there was a very bad snow storm about 4 or 5 weeks later that prevented people moving around. She had to walk uphill to the main road, then cross that and walk downhill to the church. Not that far, but impossible in deep snow.

It was only delayed by a week or so, but she still told me about it!!

re registering a birth in the same quarter.

My great grandfather was born 31st December 1862 and registered the same day with his forename blank on the certificate.

The family were the innkeepers in a small Monmouthshire village and I have often wondered if the registrar was staying in the inn at the time.

The registrar would make rounds of his area of responsibility to register new births

He must have been there on the day the baby was born which was fortunate :-)

Thank you for all of your replies. Can I ask does this cause many issues? As I am obviously aware of my own date of birth but the record shows the following year so if I input my actual details it cannot find me?

Many thanks :-)

Try it and see.

Anna

It what way would it cause any issue’s

Your birth date is at is is . When the birth was registered is irrelevant


If you wanted to buy a copy of the cert you use the GRO ref as it’s listed inc the reg birth year and qtr

When I ordered a copy of dads birth cert I ordered it as year 1908 qtr Jan-mar and the gro ref

The certificate showed his actual birth date of 28th dec 1907

The only ref to 1908 is the date of registration with the informant which was his mum