Death registration but can't find birth reg

[Sloe Gin]

I have a burial for Willie READ aged 20 days on 3 March 1898 in Aston (Birmingham).  From the address I can tell this little mite is "one of mine", but I am not sure where he fits in to the extended family.

Found the death reg: READ, WILLIE  age 0  1898  M Quarter in ASTON  Volume 06D  Page 277

But I can't find the birth registration, despite trying all sorts of combinations, leaving fields blank etc.

I am guessing that they didn't get round to registering the birth, as the baby died within the six-week window for registration.  But in that case, shouldn't it have been done when the death was registered?  I feel I should know the answer to this.

[groom]

Possibly not, maybe they were so distressed that it didn't occur to them and they thought the death certificate was all that was needed.

Have you found a baptism, if they knew the child was likely to die, they may have had him baptised quickly?

Do you know the mother's maiden name? The only male Read registered Aston in the March quarter of 1898 was Richard, mother's maiden name Jones. There is an Edwin registered Birmingham, mother's maiden name Rhodes.

[Sloe Gin]

Not so far.  It may have been a private baptism at home which was the usual procedure with sickly babies.

I just thought that with babies less than six weeks old, the Registrar when registering the death would automatically check that the birth had been registered .  Perhaps AntonyMMM can tell us.

No, I don't know the mother's maiden name!  That is what I wanted to find out. 

[arthurk]

There's one registration for a Willie (rather than William etc) in the Aston district in Mar qtr 1898, and the surname is CHEDGZOY - I don't know if this helps. (I think this is mainly a Somerset or other West Country name, and no doubt there are lots of variant spellings.)

Arthur

[Sloe Gin]

Thanks, Arthur - it doesn't ring a bell, but I'll have a look.

[carol8353]

There is a birth and death for that Chedgzoy baby.

Willie Read aged 20 days was buried at St Peter and St Paul Aston on 3rd March.

His address is given as 263 Victoria Road- any use?

Carol

[Sloe Gin]

Willie Read aged 20 days was buried at St Peter and St Paul Aston on 3rd March.

His address is given as 263 Victoria Road- any use?

Carol

Yes, I have the burial record, thanks. 

On the facing page is the burial of another Read infant on 12 March (Frank aged 14 months), address 261 Victoria Road.  I know who he is.  I spotted Willie when I was looking for Frank some time ago.  I just want to know who he belongs to as there seems to be no other record of him. 

Willie could just about be a younger brother of Frank, or he could be an illegitimate child of one of the elder sisters.  Or he may belong to someone else in the extended family.

[AntonyMMM]

Not so far.  It may have been a private baptism at home which was the usual procedure with sickly babies.

I just thought that with babies less than six weeks old, the Registrar when registering the death would automatically check that the birth had been registered .  Perhaps AntonyMMM can tell us.

No, I don't know the mother's maiden name!  That is what I wanted to find out.

Current procedure would certainly be that where the birth hasn't already been registered it is done at the same time as the death, so you would always get an entry in both registers.

As far as I know that would be the same in 1898. I don't think the scenario is specifically mentioned in the B&D Act of 1874 which would the relevant one then, but as with most registration practices  the actual instructions on how it is to be done aren't in the Parliamentary Acts but in the reams of instructions from the office of the Registrar General.

I have heard of similar case before, and I suppose it may just have been the personal interpretation of the rules  (or just laziness) by individual registrars who didn't feel the need to register the birth of a baby who had already died.

Assuming of course that the birth definitely hasn't been registered in an unexpected name or different district etc.

[medpat]

My gt grandparents had a child who was baptised at less than a month old and he was dead at a month. From his death cert. he was a sickly baby. This was in the 1880s.  Only his death was registered. I did wonder if the cost of travelling, as they were a poor family, to the registrars made them hesitate to register his birth. They lived in a village about 10 miles from where his death was registered. He had an unusual name that was a family name and his birth should have been registered the same quarter as his death and it's not there.

On the 1911 census my gt grandparents reported that there had been 14 live births and 9 deaths, my grandfather being 1 of the 5 siblings that survived.