Genealogy Chat

Hi Have a birth cert registered in Jan 1931 for a birth in 1908..does anyone know why this may have happened have looked in GRO records for month of his birth and it says page number Mch 31. Zoe

I can't guess why it happened in your case but my Gran's sister was born in 1914 and not registered until the 20's,something to do with the War.But when we looked on the GRO indexes she had a listing in 1914.

Are you sure it is not when the cert was issued? It may have been a replacement for the lost original. Liz

That 'page number Mch 31' definitely does mean that the birth was registered in the March quarter of 1931, not that a replacement cert was issued then. It is most likely that his parents didn't register his birth when he was born and he needed his birth certificate for some reason in 1931, so he had his birth registered then. Kate.

Sorry, I misunderstood the question. My mistake... Liz

You say you have the birth certificate. Is it the original or is it a copy? It should have the date of registration in the eighth column. Perhaps the birth was re registered at a later date due to some legal reason. (e.g. to legitimise the child)

This happened to a friend's grandfather (though I don't think it was cross referenced in the index). All we can think is that the grandfather needed a birth certificate to prove he was of age and then discovered that he hadn't got one. What the problem had been, we don't know, but grandfather's father went on to commit suicide in the same year. (Hope that isn't so in your case!)

He was definitely registered on 5/1/1931 and born 12/09/1908. I have no idea why never seen this before Zoe

My father was born six years before his parents got married. When they finally did tie the knot, he was re registered so that he was a legitimate child of the marriage. I looked him up in the year he was born , and there he is with his mother's maiden name. He always thought they just hadn't registered him... Maybe the parents in your case finally got married, and they wanted the son to be able to inherit from his father, with no complications? Try looking him up 22 years previously with his mother's maiden name.

Ok His parents were already married in 1901 had 4 siblings before him, and 2 after. His birth is in the GRO records but handwritten at the bottom of the page of the year he was born With page number as March 1931 when he was registered by his mother. Zoe

I have a marrige cert where whoever wrote the original copy has put the 9 over the 8 sp it reads 1911, but in the top, what I call the summary bit, someone has mistranscribed it as being 1891. Does this make sense? I know its right cos it is a copy from the local RO.

Despite what everybody has suggested, it does look like a typical case where the birth was NOT registered at the time but WAS registered many years later, presumably when he needed his birth certificate for some reason. But we can only speculate as to why it wasn't registered in the first place. My first thought would be that there was something 'dodgy' going on, such as his father wasn't his mother's husband, but of course that is just a guess. Kate.

I had a friend who was applying for a passport and she had no birth certificate. When she was born she was very poorly and not expected to live, so had never been registered. Jennifer.

My uncle was born in 1946 - he was illegitimate and not registered until the birth of my father in 1949 - long after a marriage had taken place. My grandfather's divorce had not come through from his 1st wife and my grandmother did not want to register him under her maiden name. Pen x

zoe - could you list the years the children were born and the quarter and mark out the person in question please-this reminds me of a complicated story i came across a couple of years ago. also could you pm his 2 refs and I'll have a look on 1837.