Stillbirths

[LizzieF]

What is the procedure about registering stillbirths? I am particularly interested because my gggrandmother had 17 children, so the family tale goes. I have found 13 and relatives think there were several sets of twins. I have found two sets, three children out of the sets survived 
I feel that the remaining children may have been stillborn. 
The family lived both in the UK and Ireland.

[Little Nell]

Evening LizzieF

According to Ancestral Trails by Mark Herber, stillbirths did not have to be registered until 1874.  However, Barbara Dixon says in her book that stillbirths were not registered until 1926.  The registers "were sent to the GRO when complete, so there is no record in the local register office, there are no indexes to stillbirth registers and the certificates are not issued to thos doing genealogy."

Not a lot of help is it?

Nell

[Welsh Jen]

Hello I do recall a register of sorts documented in one of the family history magazines, not sure which either:

Practical Family History
Family History Monthly or
Family Tree Magazine

I will have a good look through my lot to see if I can find the topic

Regards Jen 

[madbadrob]

I have just checked a few sites online about this topic and it seems that only the parents listed on the still birth registration can receive copies of the certificate after the initial registration.  I myself don't understand this because you can then locate the burial register and get the full details anyway.  In fact in the register for where my daughter is burried she is listed as stillborn

rob

[Welsh Jen]

I found the issue I thought I had read about stillbirths, nothing sure to  assist you. I can scan the page if you wish to see it, if you do instant message me and I will scan it to you. Within the issue it gives these useful links (not many i'm afraid):

http://www.monikie.org.uk/ah-monburtext.htm

If you experience trouble with the link then try:

http://www.monikie.org.uk

Monikie (near Dundee Scotland) Kirkyard burial records extracted from the old parish recrods includes details of stillborn children, and those who died in early infancy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1488453.stm
BBC news article about where stillborn babies were buried in Middlesbrough up until the 1980's

[honeybun]

Could anyone tell me whether the Church required stillborn babies to be baptised before they could be buried with a Church service?

Honeybun

[Christopher]

Hi Honeybun,

I contacted a reliable source and received the following reply.

The present practice of the Church of England, while much is left to the discretion of the minister, says No. Funeral Services are published in a book called 'Pastoral Services' and on pages 316-7 there is a 'Theological Note on the Funeral of a Child Dying near the Time of Birth' which encourages clergy to provide a sensitively adapted funeral service for stillbirths or children who die within hours or days of being born. It includes the phrase 'You cannnot baptize someone who is dead', and gives reasons. I do not know about other denominations, but I notice that the Roman Catholic church has now stopped speaking of limbo as the place where unbaptised babies go, and leaves their fate to God's mercy.

Best Wishes,

Christopher

[pompeyboy]

Hi,this is my first post so bear with me....In 1959 i had a sister who was stillborn and according to my mother she was taken away within an hour of being born and was buried in the same coffin as a neighbour who was being buried that day.She was never baptised or even registered and still hasn't been to this day,all this happened in Portsmouth in March 1959.When i've questioned my mother about this issue she always says"that's the way it was done in those days".

[janan]

Hi pompeyboy
Welcome to Rootschat.
I think stillbirthes were handled very insensitively in the past. I know an old lady who is still upset she did not hold her stillborn daughter.
Jan