Inconsistency in birth date, baptism and civil registration Ryan

[Citizen Smith]

Hi

Has anyone else ever come across this type of anomaly in Mayo/Irish records?

I have a civil registration for a woman born in Castlebar called Mary Josephine Ryan. On this it says her birthdate is 17th April 1919. The registration date is 16th May 1919.

On a recent trip to Mayo, her relative visited the parish church where it states in the records that she was born on 16th Feb 1919 and baptised on 22 February 1919. It also records that she was registered (I'm assuming this is the civil registration) on 17th April 1919.

Has anyone else ever come across this kind of anomaly before or able to explain it as I don't understand the difference in dates.

Cheers

Sarah

[conahy calling]

There was a fine for late registration, so in order to avoid this, the dates were altered.

[Elwyn Soutter]

Yes this was very common. The registrar often lived a considerable distance away, and so people delayed registering the birth until they had to go into town on some other more important business, and then killed two birds with one stone. The births were often registered well after the 21 day deadline. So, as Conahy has said, people just moved the birth date to one that avoided a fine. I know two people, born in the 1930s, with “2 birthdays” as a consequence of the practice.

[myluck!]

I agree 
In rural areas children were baptised as soon as possible and registered as soon as someone went "into town"!!

[Citizen Smith]

Many thanks for this - one of those things that is so simple once someone explains it!

[carol8353]

Yes my father in laws birth cert and baptism cert both have different dates on them.
He always celebrated his birthday on 11th June, we went over to Ireland (Ennis) and got a copy of his birth cert which said it was the 18th June and the baptism in the church records said 15th.

I can imagine his dad finally going all the way into town weeks after his birth and telling them that his wife had a baby 'last Wednesday' and it turned out that his idea of last Weds was different to the registrars 

Carol

[myluck!]

The family tree software I use keeps asking me about the ancestors who were baptised before they were born!
My paternal grandfather's family was the worst; one of his brothers was baptised on Jan 13 1877 and according to his birth cert born on March 10 1877!!!