Unusual birth record

[portybelle]

I was doing some research for a friend yesterday and came across a birth record which puzzled me. Although the child was born in 1926, the birth wasn't registered until 1969. Haven't come across that before. Any idea why that might be? The child is Mary Annie Maclennan and she was born in the Carloway District of Lewis. Parents Kenneth MacLennan and Christine Morrison. Unfortunately it was towards the end of the day so I didn't have time to look to find a death, assuming she has died by now.

[pharmaT]

Just be careful, I know of a few people born in the 1920s who are still with us, even some born in late 1910s. 

In answer to your question however I would guess her birth was not registered at the time for some reason and in 1969 she required a birth certificate for some reason eg passport and it had to be fixed.  Is there an RCE with the registration? 

[portybelle]

Didn't mean to imply that she had died, just meant I didn't have time to look to find out. 

There was no RCE and her father signed as informant.

[GR2]

The birth may well have been registered at the time and this is a later correction. A cousin of my mother was born in 1916. Her parents were not married and her father's name did not appear on the certificate as he was in the army in France. Her parents married after the war. Before she got married in the 1940s, her father went to the registrar of the same district and another certificate was issued which gave both parents' names and the date of their marriage.

[portybelle]

I did wonder about that GR2 but it's not showing as a corrected entry and the birth isn't recorded in 1926 at all.

[Elwyn Soutter]

Some years ago a Registrar in London told me that unregistered births occurred from time to time 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 to the parents and so occasionally people just didn’t bother. He cited illegitimacy as a common factor, though there could be other reasons. The behavioural change in 1948 came with the introduction of family allowance 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. Otherwise you wouldn’t get your money!

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.

He added that usually the need to obtain a passport or a pension was a factor leading to the late registration.

[ev]

Just to note -
SP has a 1988 death for a Mary Annie MacLennan(mother's maiden name Morrison) Stornoway Ross & Cromarty , born c1926.



ev

[portybelle]

Thank you Elwyn, that sounds a likely scenario. Not illegitimacy in this case but perhaps they just didn't get around to it!

And thank you Ev - sure that will be her. I'll check properly next time I visit the records office.

[aelfric]

Some years ago a Registrar in London told me that unregistered births occurred from time to time in the UK until 1948.

There also appears to have been a number of late registrations around the middle of WW1.  I found several children born in the 1900s who appeared in the 1911 census but don't get into the GRO index of births until 1915.  It seems too early for rationing but maybe it was to make sure boys' ages were correct before they were of an age to be conscripted.