I am trying to help my 85 year old cousin, who has found his birth certificate and he says there is info on there he did not know and he would like some help understanding it. He was never told much about his parents or his early life, and he has never thought about the circumstances of his birth before and I don’t want to upset him with wrong info so I wanted to check some facts for him. We would be grateful for your help on the following:
1) his birth was registered a full year (almost to the day) after his birth. Reg date was summer 1936 showing birth date summer 1935. How long were they supposed to have, and would his parents got into trouble for not registering him earlier? ( There are no notes on the birth certificate to show it was a re-reg for change of surname etc, and indeed the parents didn’t marry until many years later)
2) My cousin was always told he was born in West Ham hospital but the location on the cert is “202 st Mary’s road” and then the letters VA or UA. What do those letters mean; he thought perhaps it was UK in poor handwriting but I didn’t think so? (I don’t have the cert, he read it out over the phone and he doesn’t do email or scanning! )
The same VA or UA follows the address of his mother and she is at an address in Kingston on Thames,
3) His father’s address was different, an address in Hornchurch.
My cousin would like to know; would the addresses given of his parents be those at the time of his birth in august 1935, or at the time of the registration a year later?
Many thanks all
