Athlone: Legal requirements birth registration 1925/finding addresses 1920/30s

[IgorStrav]

I have just received a birth certificate for the wife of my great-uncle.

She was Hilda WEST born 1st August 1925 in Athlone, Castlemaine St.
No father's name is shown, her mother is shown as Margaret WEST, birth surname WEST.

In fact Margaret West was the widow of William Samuels, who died in WWI, and would have been living as Mrs Samuels.  However, this child was evidently illegitimate, and she did not want to use her husband's name it seems.

So question 1, if anyone can help:

The birth wasn't registered till 19th October 1925 which is 79 days after birth - was this beyond the required period, and would it have brought a penalty of some kind?

The informant was Delia Jane Mastwell, of Irishtown, present at the birth.

Question 2, again if anyone can advise:

Are there any records - like UK Voter's lists - where I can investigate where these two women were living (did Margaret West move before or after the birth, which must have been disgraceful in those times) and who Delia Jane Mastwell might have been (midwife? neighbour? relative?)

Hilda appears to have become part of the Samuels family, lived and married as Hilda Samuels, and doesn't appear to have questioned the fact that she was born in 1925 when her father died in 1917.

[heywood]

Delia Jane is Maxwell rather than Mastwell. Here she is in 1911. She is a Nurse.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Westmeath/Athlone_East_Urban/Irishtown/875907/

Delia was Delia White on marriage - just in case there is a link somewhere
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1888/10786/5933360.pdf

Margaret Samuels in 1911
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Westmeath/Athlone_East_Urban/Brideswell_Street/875610/

Unfortunately the marriage isn’t online - just the transcript
http://www.rootschat.com/links/01pqc/

Birth of Edward Samuels in 1914 - Delia Maxwell is the informant
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1914/01419/1582921.pdf

[IgorStrav]

Thank you, Heywood, very helpful.

The difference in surname for Delia must have been in the typewritten transcription of the (presumably) handwritten original.

A family friend then - unless I can find a family connection.

Hard to imagine the scandal this must have been for Margaret.

I understand after her husband’s death in 1917 some of her children were put in a children’s home, but at least one remained with her and would have known Hilda was the child of another man.

I’m not conversant with the fiercely Catholic culture there would have been but presumably this would have badly affected Margaret’s position in the community. And Hilda’s when she went to school?

[heywood]

Delia is described as a Nurse.
I just looked a random birth up from the area and Delia was the informant plus another two on the page. 

I just thought I would look her up in the newspapers. She is referred to as a District Nurse.
There are snippets where she is charged, together with her father and another, with the murder of a young man. I can’t see any more but as she was delivering babies later, I presume she  was acquitted.

[IgorStrav]

Goodness me, Heywood, just read the newspaper articles about the murder.  The three defendants were due to be tried later in the year, but there seems to be no report about the trial itself - as you say, presumably Delia Jane Maxwell was acquitted.

I see that Delia's husband was an English soldier from the marriage ref you provided - interesting, I wonder whether they knew the Samuels family, where William Samuels was also an English soldier who married an Athlone girl.


Can anyone help with the legal requirements for the time allowed to elapse before a birth was registered in Ireland at the time? And whether there were any penalties for breaking the time limit?

I'm assuming that there are no voters lists (or equivalent) available to tell me if Margaret West Samuels moved house after the birth of her illegitimate daughter or if she had someone living with her who could be the father of the child.

 

[heywood]

This might help
https://www.freeukgenealogy.org.uk/news/2018/01/26/irish-family-history-civil-registration/

[IgorStrav]

This might help
https://www.freeukgenealogy.org.uk/news/2018/01/26/irish-family-history-civil-registration/

Thank you!  3 months allowed for the child to be registered, so 1st August to 19th October was fine for the birth of the baby Hilda.