Lack of Birth Registration

[forest]

According to the 1851 Warwickshire census, my ggrandfather Thomas Edmonds was 9 years old at that time, born in B'ham.   However, having checked 1837 online, UKBDM, Ancestry BDM and LDS I cannot find any record of his birth.   Is my only hope a visit to the Record Office in London (my nearest)?  Were ALL births registered?
How long is it likely to take me to find him, having no reference numbers?  Incidentally, I do have ref. nos. for his marriage.

Any suggestions/help would be very much appreciated.  Thanks

[Welsh Jen]

Hello It could be that your ancestors surname has been spelt differently and that could be the reason for not finding him. Also ages on census can be rounded down / up and are sometimes not very accurate.

Some births are not registered but that is normally around 1837 when civil registration began. I would assume that the year you are searching for, all births would be registered. 

With regards to your nearest family history ctr. instant message me with your location and I will see if I can locate your nearest records office in order for you to look for his birth entry.

I would base your search for his birth entry on the census birthyear and work your way through the microfiche 5 yrs each way from that given year to start off.

[forest]

Thanks, Jen
I have tried Edmunds, to no avail.  I'm in Orpington.

[Kazza]

Another thing to bear in mind is that although 1837 was the date that registration came in,  it was not until 1875ish that is was legally enforceable.

After 1875 you could be fined for not registering,  and this did lead to an increase in the registrations.

Kazza.

[Welsh Jen]

Email these offices to see if they hold Births, Marriage & Deaths on microfiche for the U.K

Bromley Civic Centre, Stockwell Close, Bromley, BR1 3UH.
Tel: 020 8313 4666. E-mail: registrars@bromley.gov.uk
 
Tunbridge Wells County Offices, 39 Grove Hill Road, Tunbridge Wells, TN1 1SL.
Tel: 0870 243 7788. Fax: 01892 528518.
E-mail: tunbridge-wells.register-office@kent.gov.uk

I also found these on the Free BMD site:

Surname  First name(s)    District  Vol  Page 
Births Dec 1844
EDMONDS  Thomas Bruce    Birmingham  16 303   

Births Jun 1845
EDMONDS  Thomas Robert     Birmingham  16 269

Also on that same site I found this entry:

Surname  First name(s)    District  Vol  Page 
Marriages Sep 1842
EDMONDS  Thomas    Birmingham  16 296

Worth keeping in mind, Possible Father of Thomas ??

[forest]

Thanks again Jen - His full name was Thomas William so the birth records are out but  I shall certainly follow up on the marriage entry, and will contact the register offices you suggest.


forest

[GreySquirrel]

Hi

My penny'sworth...

Proportionately large numbers of early birth registrations (Sep q 1837 to mid-1840s) for some registration districts are indexed as "male" or "female" at the end of the usual A-Z of forenames under each surname. An entry indexed under male or female is not necessarily an indication of infant death; many were simply unnamed at the time of registration. So, in this case, you might like to consider births under Male Edmonds if all else fails.

It is of course possible that this particular birth was not registered but one should not exaggerate the numbers which went unrecorded: the expectation should always be that you will find the person you are seeking.

There are of course other reasons for not finding a birth: mis-registration, misindexing; birth under the mother's maiden surname (due to the birth being illegitimate and the parents marrying later); birth under a different surname due to remarriage, fostering etc. Many of the "unregistered births" will have been registered under an unexpected surname for one or other of these reasons.

[lizdb]

Hi! Great to find a fellow 'Edmonds'! My brother & I have traced our Edmonds line back about 200 years+, mainly in Sussex - so we dont include your Thomas William, sorry.
Just one tip  - the spelling of Edmonds is totally random in the various records! You may be Edmonds, but always look in Edmunds and Edmends and Edmands! Most website databases will accept a wildcard - I always key in Edm*nds to cover all possible spellings.
Also - there are lots of Edmonds's! it is not as easy a name to research as one might think!
Wishing you success in finding Thomas William. Have you got him on later censuses, which might give a variation on the date of birth?
Liz

[forest]

Received my Thomas' marriage cert. today and his father is down as Samuel Edmonds - he would have been born somewhere around 1820 so I'm pleased to see the'o' still in place then - however, I agree we have to be ready for
various misspellings.  I do have Thomas in 1871 and 81, aged 28 and 38 - so am taking his birth year as '42/'43.  No doubt I'll confirm it eventually.