Births registered but not deaths?

[cazmatic]

I have two different family members - a sibling of my great-grandfather and a sister of my grandmother who don’t seem to have any death records (in Scotland). In the case of my grandmother’s sister she must have died in childhood or infancy because she never ever mentioned her. I knew all about her brothers and other sister.  I have the birth certificate for this little girl, born in 1919, but there is no record of her death.  How normal was it for people to register a birth but not the death of a young child? It seems odd by today’s standards.

[chempat]

Could she have been put in an institution and died at a later age?

Was there any chance that she was not the Father's daughter, and was adopted?  (Was she born just after the war and the father was still away at conception date?)

Just trying to think of any reasons why you cannot find a death.

[Kloumann]

Can you provide more details & we can look for an answer?

[iolaus]

It could be that the child was adopted out and the existing children didn't know

My husband's great grandmother had a younger brother which she didn't know about  who was adopted (1918 so similar time period to this - he was actually sent to Australia under the home children scheme - same birth name still - so may be worth you looking at)

My grandmother had a baby in the early 1930s (so my dad's older sister) who was adopted - I sent off for the birth certificate because a) it's an unusual surname in the right area and b) I had a feeling - on the border it was annotated with adopted - when I asked my dad he's never heard of her (he did wonder if she was his dads as he was married to someone else at that point)

[cazmatic]

My grandmother’s family had a slightly unusual surname.  Parents were Michael and Mary McCullen. Their children were:
Michael born 1915
Patrick born 1917
Mary born 1919
Bridget born 1922
Bernard born 1924
Catherine born 1925.

Mary is the one I can’t locate beyond her birth. The death records for all other Mary McCullens (five in total) on Scotland’s People don’t match up (and one is her mother).  If she was adopted it seems there’s no way of being able to tell. The National Records of Scotland website says: “Before 1930 adoptions were arranged on a private basis, either by individuals or by one of a number of charitable adoption agencies.  We do not hold records for adoptions before 1930.”

My great grandfather wasn’t a soldier in WWI. They moved from Northern Ireland to Scotland shortly before their kids were born. His death certificate has his name as “Michael McCullen, formerly McCullion” which is a headache in and of itself (this branch of the family back in Ireland seemed to chop and change how they spelled their surname from one census to the next). However I can’t find a death for Mary McCullion so that rules that out too. It has me stumped. Also concerned they didn’t report a death and just got rid of a body or something.

[iolaus]

Just another idea.  One family member of mine is registered in 1914 as Norah Lily, everything else she's Lily Norah - including her death

Did Mary have a middle name?  Especially as the mother was Mary it wouldn't be unusual for her to be known as the middle name - and potentially her death registered under that

[chempat]

Hold your breath and wait for release of 1921 census from scotlandspeople?  (Though no guarantee that she will be there).

[Kloumann]

Is it possible that her death was registered before her birth?

There is a death of a Mary McMullen in 1918, age 0, Coatbridge or Old Monkland.

A bit of long shot but not impossible.

[Radcliff]

Have you searched the electoral rolls to see if she is still living with her parents Michael and Mary, is that them  in Douglas Street Coatbridge in 1935 ,