Declaration of Birth???

[janan]

Although you said that you are unable to read the document pertaining to your grandmother's birth, it still might be worth taking a decent scan (if possible, without damaging it) and posting it here to get people's opinions on the name and any of the other words you cannot decipher.

I was just about to suggest that too

Jan

[Traycee]

Some years ago a Registrar in London told me that unregistered births were quite common in the UK until 1948. Whilst before that there had long been a legal requirement to register a birth, there was no obvious immediate practical benefit and so people occasionally didn’t bother. He cited illegitimacy as a common factor in unregistered births. The behavioural change in 1948 came with the introduction of family allowance (modern tax credits) paid by the state. You needed a birth certificate to make a claim. As a result, from that time onwards people would nearly always register births promptly.

The Registrar told me that the Superintendent Registrar has discretion to register a late birth, even if that was 5 or 50 years later. However to do so, normally someone present at the birth (not necessarily the parents) has to be able to swear to the event, and explain why it was not registered at the time. I suspect that in your case there was no-one who could do that and so swearing an affidavit, linked to school records which would provide a fairly accurate indicator of age, was the best alternative the family could come up with.

Hi, that is very interesting and really makes sense to my particular case, the Declaration does mention education on top left hand corner too. Thanks for your input it's really helped towards a possible explanation of why I can not trace her birth reg/cert.

[Traycee]

Although you said that you are unable to read the document pertaining to your grandmother's birth, it still might be worth taking a decent scan (if possible, without damaging it) and posting it here to get people's opinions on the name and any of the other words you cannot decipher.

I attempted to post an image up last night but it is to big? I'll try and reduce the size and up load it again although I haven't a clue how to reduce it lol.

I've got a name in mind for her mother but will not say until I get an opinion or 2 on it first. Thanks.

[Traycee]

Hopefully the image has uploaded:

[Ruskie]

I'm afraid it hasn't ... please try again.

I'm the blind leading the blind (as I've really no clue about these thingS), but many people have problems posting images, and it is often suggested that they change the file name (if they've tried multiple times without success) - BUT, someone else should be along soon to help you properly. 

[JanMcK]

I have the same document of declaration for my father. It is needed as he was adopted and his name after adoption is different to that of his birth name on his birth certificate. As such I think this is probably why you have been able to find the actual record of her birth as it is probably under a different name. I fortunately also have my fathers birth certificate as well which has a different surname on to the statutory declaration. I believe my father had to show the statutory declaration whenever birth certificates were required as he himself did not obtain his actual birth certificate until after his adopted mother passed away.