They married but didn't register their children, why???

[Brownbaker]

Hi,

My great grandparents were married in 1893, and lived happily together for 20yrs before emmigrating with their family to N. America in 1914. I have a copy of their marriage certificate from Oct. 18th 1893, in the Evangelical Union (or United) Church and it is signed by them, lists their parents, the pastor and two witnesses.

So, why then did they never register any of their children's births?

Their 3 children were not illegitimate but the law required that they be registered...so why not do this? The only mention i can find of my great-grandparents' and their three children is in a 1901 cencus and in the ship's passenger list for N. America in 1914 before emmigrating...?

Was this common practice to not register children in Scotland in the 1890's or could there have been another reason?

Thanky ou for your help! 

[Chilternbirder]

If the children were born at home without a doctor there was probably no driver to make a special journey to do this. Again they might have assumed that it was the same thing as being on the church's baptismal register.

At the turn of the century there wasn't the same obsession with proving people's identity. It is clear that my grandfather didn't produce his birth certificate when he joined the army at this time as all his army records have his forenames reversed because he always used his middle name.

It is also possible, that like my grandfather, the names on the register simply aren't the same as the names on the census (I spent months searching for records about him until I realised that he signed himself Charles rather than Reuben)

[josey]

One reason for not registering children was because the Registrar had to inform the Vaccination Officer; some parents did not want their children vaccinated so didn't register the birth. Whether this still pertained in 1893 onwards I do not know. If you do a search on rootschat you will find a few threads detailing this.

[Brownbaker]

Thank you for your quick responses and your infos!
It's helped me get a better picture of what was going on back then....

I found this quote taken from an article about vaccinations in Scotland during the 1850's:

"At its most severe in Glasgow between April and October 1857, the new epidemic caused 58 deaths in June and constituted 6.7 per cent of fatalities there. In October, Glasgow and Paisley were jointly responsible for the entire smallpox mortality in Scotland..."

My great-grandmother originated from Paisley and the epidemic above was a just few years before she married my great-grandfather in Glasgow.

It had been a family mystery, why my great-grandmother left Paisley or how she met my great-grandfather, from a seaside town - or why they moved their home and business to Tobermory before finally emmigrating to N. America....?

Perhaps it was to avoid infection, or to avoid the law catching up with them?

Thanks for your help 

[MaureeninNY]

Have you tried Scotlands People?

If I have the correct family in Canada then this looks like the births of two of the children:


MACTAGGART GEORGE GODFREY  1899  549/ 18

Tobermory
.........

MACTAGGART RUBY 1902 549/ 10 Tobermory
......

Maureen

[MaureeninNY]

And the first daughter....

MCTAGGART

ANNIE WILSON

F

1896

576/1 107

Ardrossan Old
......
Maureen

[Brownbaker]

@MaureeninNY

WOW!! That was fast...and how did you know it was Mctaggart? I never mentioned their names?

But yes! thats them

I'm on Scotlandspeople and have done searches all week but these names never showed up? How did you find them....you didn't even know who to look for?   

[MaureeninNY]

 

I just looked at your previous posts and put two and two together.

Maureen

[MonicaL]

You mentioned you only had the family in the 1901 census prior to their departure in 1914.

Just from the index on SP, the family in 1911 look to be showing as McTaggart in Tobermory:

Neil 44
Annie 45
Annetta W 14
George G 11
Ruby C 8

Monica