RootsChat.Com

Quote from: CaroleW on Monday 06 May 24 10:51 BST (UK)

Have you checked freebmd /GRO online to confirm there is a birth registration?  Failure to register a birth in England & Wales only became a fineable offence in 1874.

There are many unregistered births prior to 1874

If you find a registration - use GRO online to check for mothers maiden name

www.freebmd.org.uk

https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/Login.asp

Thank you for this, it explains a lot why I have missing birth records for my ancestors illegitimate children, have so far only found 1 registered birth out of 5 known children.  I didn't realise it only became fineable in 1874.

Registrars have never been able to fine anyone.

There was a FEE payable for a late registration - from 1837 it was 7s 6d and became payable at 6 weeks, but after the 1874 Act it was reduced to 5s and was only payable at 3 months after the birth.

Fines could only be issued by a court after conviction - people were fined for failing/refusing to register births right from the start in 1837 - but the offences were only committed if the parent(s) had been issued with a notice by the registrar requiring them to register.

So you could say parents were in a way asked to come forward prior to 1875 then?

GRO issued notices in the press when registration was launched. The issue, and all the discussion since, really revolves around the use of the word "may" rather than "must" in  the 1836 B&D Act, and how that would have been defined at the time. It was certainly the intention of parliament, and the Registrar General, that this was a compulsory system being introduced.

The press notice said ..."all births and deaths which occur after June 1837 may be registered by the registrar of the district within which they occur.." it then confirms that registration is free but then warns of the fee that becomes payable for registering births after the required 6 weeks ( which was 7s 6d), and goes on to say therefore that "All persons therefore should have the births of their children registered without delay".

The 1874 Act clarified things a little and instead of saying parents "may" register a birth it became "shall be the duty of " - it also extended the period of free registration to 3 months and reduced the fee for late registration slightly (to 5s).

Registrars had no ability to issues fines, and could only levy the statutory fees. Fines could only come from a court after prosecution. What is clear is that some parents were prosecuted for failing to register or refusing to regsiter births right from the start in 1837, but failing/refusal only became an offence once the registrar had issued a notice requiring the parents to register which they then ignored.

but as we know, until 1875, the onus was on the registrar and his deputies to be on the ball in regards to new births in the district.

The actual wording of the act was that the registrar "is hereby required to inform himself carefully of every Birth and every Death which shall happen within his District".

Records of correspondence in the RG files at TNA make it clear that there was no expectation that the registrar was supposed to go out walking the streets asking about births and deaths or to be knocking on people's doors.

He was required to live within his district and to make his address (and times of availability) known by having a sign "in some conspicuous place on or near the outer door of his own dwelling house".

Announcements placed by registrars in the newspapers of the time advertising times for registering are also quite common.

With young infant deaths in the early/mid Victorian period, although there should be both a birth and a death registration, it isn't uncommon to find only the death recorded by the registrar.

A birth should be registered (in E/W) within 42 days i.e. 6 weeks. That has applied since 1837, and still does today.

In 1901 the fee (not a fine) that became payable for a late registration was 2s 6d to the registrar and 2s 6d to the superintendent registrar, BUT that only became payable if the birth wasn't registered within 3 months of the birth.

So, in effect, the "free" period for registering was 3 months.

I don't see what else you'd get from a full certificate unless I'm missing something.

Apart from the missing headings, the only difference is that digital images don't (usually) show any marginal notes that may be on the entry - pdf and paper copies do. Otherwise they are identical.