Why would you not register your children's birth?

[greenvalley]

Alexander Harris and his wife Sarah Fyfe had 6 children

James, born about 1841 in Kendal, Westmorland, England
Jane, born about 1843, Perth details from census
Margaret 1846 Newburgh, Fyfe, details from census
Alexander 1848 Auchterarder, Perth details from census
John 1854 Newburgh Fyfe details from census
Elizabeth born 1858, properly registered in Dundee because official records had started

So the couple never registered the birth of their children until the last one in 1858. Has anyone come across this? Why would they have avoided registering them?

I have tried every record on Scotlandspeople and BMD for the birth of the oldest son, but found absolutely nothing and can't understand why?

Any ideas anyone?

Greenvalley

[Maiden Stone]

So the couple never registered the birth of their children until the last one in 1858. Has anyone come across this? Why would they have avoided registering them?

I have tried every record on Scotlandspeople and BMD for the birth of the oldest son, but found absolutely nothing and can't understand why?
Any ideas anyone?

The first child was born in England. Registration of births began in England 1837. It wasn't compulsory. Onus was on local registrars to find out about births, not on parents. They weren't 100% successful.
All except last child were born in Scotland before birth registration began there so no birth records to find.
Only records would be baptisms. What denomination were they?

[greenvalley]

Hi Maiden Stone

They were Free Church. The couple married in Burnside Westmorland on 23 July 1840 and were back in Perth Scotland in June 1841 for the census, when the baby is said to be 2 months old and born in England. In the 1881 census James himself stated that he was born in Kendal, but there is no registration.

Most people in Scotland would register the birth in the old parish records, but they did not.

 

[Craclyn]

You should be looking for baptisms rather than birth registrations since this is the period prior to civil registration.

[greenvalley]

I have looked for the baptisms, they are not there. None of them, except the last child.

Believe me, I have tried every denomination, every different spelling of the name, They are all on census forms but not on any other record.

I just can't understand why they would not register them. If only one was missing, I would think it's a mistake or oversight, but it applies to 4 births in Scotland, in different parishes, that seems too much of a coincidence, especially if you consider that the birth in Kendal wasn't registered either.

[Maiden Stone]

They must have left Kendal without the registrar knowing about the birth. Registrars would have used informants such as clergy and midwives. The Harris family might not have had contact with either before they left Kendal. James may have put Kendal as his birthplace because it was the nearest town.
Were there any churches in or around Kendal where James may have been baptised, taking into account his parents were Free Church?
What was Alexander's occupation?

There was a 2-year-old girl on 1841 census in a multi-generational household of my ancestors in Preston, Lancashire, whose birth registration I've not found. Can't find her baptism either. She wasn't on 1851 census but there was no death registration in the intervening decade.  I can understand no birth registration, she was simply missed among the teeming hordes. More puzzling is what happened to her after 1841.

[greenvalley]

Hi Maiden Stone

Alexander was a wood turner. He was born in Newburgh in Fyfe and his wife Sarah came from Haddington East Lothian.

I'm not certain how (or if) they met in Kendal, but they married there and then had a baby and went back to Scotland. No idea why.

I can follow all the children, their marriages, deaths etc, bbut no birth registration anywhere. But I know how frustrating it can be if people all of a sudden appear and then vanish again.

[majm]

Have you considered that the babes were baptised but that the Church Registers have been lost perhaos due to a calamity eg if most of the children 'should' be found in the  same baptism register is it possible there may have been a  significant fire or flood in the mid to late 1800s ?

ADD or the registers may be misplaced or not submitted to Church leaders when full.


JM.

[coombs]

Birth registration in Scotland started in 1855, so the 1843, 1846, 1848 and 1854 births in Scotland did not need to be regsitered. As for the 1841 birth in England, well, as stated, several births went unregistered as it was down to the registrar and his deputies to tour the district to get info on new births in the district, and some got missed.