Thanks to help from Rootschat support I have moved this thread to London because from Liverpool because it seems more likely I can find answers from that region.
Does anyone know it there was a practice for parents to register births in more than one parish/workhouse area in order to get duty of care support from both places if needed?
I have 2 birth certificates with Jeremiah O'Connell a hawker, the father registering a son in 1878:
-Jeremiah b.20th Feb reg'd 2nd March at Union Infirmary Greenwich, Mother formerly Power
-Jeremiah b.20th Feb reg'd 11th march St Ann St, Westminster, Mother formerly Connelly
It seems remarkable that two hawker fathers would have a son Jeremiah on the same day
On 4th Feb Catherine Connell was admitted to Greenwich Union Infirmary destitute and pregnant so it seems likely the mother was formerly Power.
However, on 31 Mar 1883 Jeremiah O'C, hawker, and Catherine had daughter Catherine again in Greenwich Union but mother was formerly Connelly
I can find no history for a catherine Connelly
With both parents Hawkers, the family probably moved around because on the 1881 census they were in 8 Hesketh Place Kensington.
Workhouse records show the father Jeremiah was in and out of Hackney/Islington workhouses and Infirmary for 12 out of 20 years and Catherine O'Connell was also in Islington Infirmary at times.
I am wondering if its possible that Catherine O'Connell/Power returned to Greenwich to have her children because that was the parish/area that was obliged to give her care.
I developed this idea because reports of Henry Mayfields social research in the late 19th century suggests that Masters of Workhouses did move pregnant women on to avoid becoming responsible for the children. That research also showed that only a minority of Hawker couples living together were married which could explain why women might use the name of the father of their children in some cases but their unmarried name in others.
In my case here I can't find any record of Jeremiah marrying although I have his death cert - nor of Catherine Power/Connelly marrying nor of her death although there is a record of the death of Catherine Powers in Greenwich Infirmary in 1891.
Does anyone have a view on whether it's likely my two Catherines are the same person?
