I'll make this my last post to the list about this as it's clearly not Devon related.  Email me privately if you would like to continue the conversation. If a baby only takes one breath after birth, it's not a still birth, and you would expect the birth to be registered, and its subsequent death.  It is very unusual for true still births to be registered (as distinct from recorded).  But this is by recent/modern standards and I guess there have been a range of practices found across time and place. Many families are now attempting to find the burial places of babies who were stillborn or who died very early as the parents were only rarely involved in the arrangements  At least where I work, we can mostly help as we do have the records. Robyn   ----- Original Message ----- From: devon@rootsweb.com To: Cc: Sent:Sat, 18 Jan 2014 17:22:24 -0500 Subject:Re: [DEV] Historic Still Birth Register Robyn wrote, "Other than in modern hospital patient records, still births are simply not recorded, let alone registered anywhere, so entries in this Register can only be derived from personal correspondence or memory." While it is far both geographically and in record-keeping systems from historical Devon, stillbirths and children who died within minutes to a few hours of their birth were regularly recorded by many of the town clerks in colonial Massachusetts. I have been able to fill in additional information on many of my colonial families this way as these infants are much less likely to have extant gravestones than infants/children who died when they were slightly older. I would be very surprised if it were the only place in the world that recorded stillbirths, and indeed, Bev's response indicates that it is not. Liz Loveland Massachusetts, USA ------------------------------------------ The DEVON-L mailing list is co-sponsored by GENUKI/Devon ( http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/ ) and the Devon FHS (http://www.devonfhs.org.uk/ ) List archive for Devon can be found at http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index/DEVON/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to DEVON-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

The following information relates to Devon, as well as further afield. This does NOT relate to the Historic Still Birth Register topic, as discussed previously. Some Devon cemetery/church burial registers record stillbirths and a child may be buried in a numbered and individual grave, or with another person, buried on the same day. Current Devon legislation - <http://new.devon.gov.uk/registrationservice/guide/register-a-death/part-4-special-circumstances> states: A stillbirth should be registered at a register office within 42 days. Sometimes a stillbirth can be registered after 42 days – the register office can explain when this can happen. You can name the baby in the register. In Scotland you must register a stillbirth within 21 days. In Northern Ireland<http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/index/information-and-services/government-citizens-and-rights/births-and-registration/registering-a-still-birth.htm> you have up to 1 year to register a stillbirth. >From <http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/LIN/civilreg.html#Stillbirth> Stillborn children were not registered prior to 1927. Stillbirth registration was introduced on 1 July 1927 to help protect infant life, provide a valuable source of statistical information and to give parents the opportunity to have their child officially acknowledged. A stillborn child is a child born after the 24th week of pregnancy who did not breathe or show any other signs of life. When a child is stillborn the midwife or doctor will issue a medical certificate of stillbirth which will be used to register the stillbirth. When stillbirth registration was introduced the the age limit was the end of the 28th week of pregnancy, not the 24th (as it is now). This is a relatively recent change following the greatly increased survival rates of premature babies. Current GRO policy on obtaining stillbirth certificates: "Due to the sensitive nature of stillbirth registrations, the procedure for ordering a certificate of the entry differs from other types of certificates. We will only send out the application form after we have been contacted by phone or in writing by the mother or father (if he is named on the certificate). In cases where the parents are deceased, a brother or sister can apply if they can provide their parents' dates of death." Regards, Maureen Devon FHS 4019 --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com