2 Births registered for same person.

[jamcat95]

Hi
I have bought 2 birth certificates of a Sarah Kirkhope born in 1907. The thing is that they were registered in Shettleston, Lanark and in Old Kilpartick, Dunbarton with the same dates, addresses and parents.
I wonder why there were 2 certificates registered?
Can anyone help me please?

[GR2]

It's not unusual for someone born outwith their parents' parish or district to be registered there as well. The parents would take the first certificate to the "home" registrar and have it transcribed there too. I have a few examples where a person was born or died in a hospital at a distance from their usual residence where this has happened. I also have an instance where a child was registered in 1916 by her unmarried mother (the father being in France with the army). The parents married after the war and the child's birth was reregistered in the 1940s just before she married, the new birth certificate giving the same details as the 1916 one with the addition of the father's name and the parent's marriage details.

[jamcat95]

Thank you GR2 for your prompt reply.
Cheers.

[Forfarian]

From the book Vital Registration, a handbook for Registrars: "Where a child is born in a district different from the domicile, the Registrar is directed to insert the domicile in Column (4); and if the domicile is in Scotland, to transmite a copy of the entry within eight days to the Registrar of the district containing the domicile, who transcribes the entry into his Register".

So it was not a case of the parents opting to have the birth re-registered in the district where they lived; there was an instruction to the Registrar to ensure that a child born outwith the district where its parents normally lived was registered in the parents' home district as well as in the district of its birth.

Re-registration at a later date may also result in double registration, as GR2 has pointed out.

[jamcat95]

Thank you Forfarian.
Cheers.