I've been considering how to record civil registration of births and deaths in my own genealogy database. Currently, if I discover a birth registration in, say, Q1 1867, then I enter a birth event for Jan-Mar 1867 and a source citation to the UK GRO index (or to FreeBMD sa appropriate). However, this is wrong as the person could have been born in late Dec 1866 and the birth registered (perfectly properly) a week or two later, as happened with my great grandmother. And it's certainly possible that the birth was earlier still and registered late -- just because (in the UK) there was a legal requirement to register births within 42 days doesn't mean it necessarily always happened like that. But I'm now thinking that I should consider 'birth registration' to be a separate event to 'birth', much as I consider 'baptism' to be separate to 'birth'. I can then say, quite correctly, that the birth registration occurred in Jan-Mar 1867, and I can use this to estimate a birth in Nov 1866 - Mar 1867. This also allows the 'birth registration' event to have different participants to the 'birth' event. For example, a birth registration (in the UK, at least) has an informant who is often but not always a parent. However, I'm surprised that (so far as I can tell) none of the usual genealogical data models seem to allow for this. So how do other people record civil registrations? Or am I unusual in having quite a few people in my tree (generally cousins N-times removed) where the registration quarter is my best estimate of their date of birth or death? Richard

On Thu, 07 Feb 2013 20:01:28 +0000, Richard Smith <richard@ex-parrot.com> wrote: >I've been considering how to record civil registration of births and >deaths in my own genealogy database. Currently, if I discover a birth >registration in, say, Q1 1867, then I enter a birth event for Jan-Mar >1867 and a source citation to the UK GRO index (or to FreeBMD sa >appropriate). However, this is wrong as the person could have been born >in late Dec 1866 and the birth registered (perfectly properly) a week or >two later, as happened with my great grandmother. And it's certainly >possible that the birth was earlier still and registered late -- just >because (in the UK) there was a legal requirement to register births >within 42 days doesn't mean it necessarily always happened like that. > >But I'm now thinking that I should consider 'birth registration' to be a >separate event to 'birth', much as I consider 'baptism' to be separate >to 'birth'. I can then say, quite correctly, that the birth >registration occurred in Jan-Mar 1867, and I can use this to estimate a >birth in Nov 1866 - Mar 1867. This also allows the 'birth >registration' event to have different participants to the 'birth' event. > For example, a birth registration (in the UK, at least) has an >informant who is often but not always a parent. You don't say what your "own genealogy database" is. A program like "Custodian" allows you to record information on BMD certificates, and I think Clooz does too. > >However, I'm surprised that (so far as I can tell) none of the usual >genealogical data models seem to allow for this. So how do other >people record civil registrations? Or am I unusual in having quite a >few people in my tree (generally cousins N-times removed) where the >registration quarter is my best estimate of their date of birth or death? In my lineage-linked databases, where I have got information from FreeBMD, for example, and haven't got the actual certificate, I record a first quarter registration as "Abt Feb 1857" or whatever, using the middle month of the quarter, and list FreeBMD as the source, giving the Volume and Page reference. That makes it easier to order the certificate if need be. I also put the place of birth, as, for example Islington RD" (for registration district). But beware if you upload anything to Ancestry.com with imprecise place names, as it will change them to something that it has in its database, which may well be on another continent. -- Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

On 2013-02-07 20:01, Richard Smith wrote: > I've been considering how to record civil registration of births and > deaths in my own genealogy database. Currently, if I discover a birth > registration in, say, Q1 1867, then I enter a birth event for Jan-Mar > 1867 and a source citation to the UK GRO index (or to FreeBMD sa > appropriate). However, this is wrong as the person could have been born > in late Dec 1866 and the birth registered (perfectly properly) a week or > two later, as happened with my great grandmother. And it's certainly > possible that the birth was earlier still and registered late -- just > because (in the UK) there was a legal requirement to register births > within 42 days doesn't mean it necessarily always happened like that. > > But I'm now thinking that I should consider 'birth registration' to be a > separate event to 'birth', much as I consider 'baptism' to be separate > to 'birth'. I can then say, quite correctly, that the birth > registration occurred in Jan-Mar 1867, and I can use this to estimate a > birth in Nov 1866 - Mar 1867. This also allows the 'birth > registration' event to have different participants to the 'birth' event. > For example, a birth registration (in the UK, at least) has an > informant who is often but not always a parent. > > However, I'm surprised that (so far as I can tell) none of the usual > genealogical data models seem to allow for this. So how do other > people record civil registrations? Or am I unusual in having quite a > few people in my tree (generally cousins N-times removed) where the > registration quarter is my best estimate of their date of birth or death? > > Richard I use the concept of "best available date" for events. So I might start with the registration date and refine that later to the actual birth date. Pertinent data (as far as available) from the registration is recorded as evidence and there is a list of alternative event dates stored in order of preference (in this case there could be two dates in the list). That is on the Gendatam system which unfortunately is not currently available unless you happen to have a copy.

Richard Smith wrote: > I've been considering how to record civil registration of births and > deaths in my own genealogy database. Currently, if I discover a birth > registration in, say, Q1 1867, then I enter a birth event for Jan-Mar > 1867 and a source citation to the UK GRO index (or to FreeBMD sa > appropriate). However, this is wrong as the person could have been born > in late Dec 1866 and the birth registered (perfectly properly) a week or > two later, as happened with my great grandmother. And it's certainly > possible that the birth was earlier still and registered late -- just > because (in the UK) there was a legal requirement to register births > within 42 days doesn't mean it necessarily always happened like that. > > But I'm now thinking that I should consider 'birth registration' to be a > separate event to 'birth', much as I consider 'baptism' to be separate > to 'birth'. I can then say, quite correctly, that the birth > registration occurred in Jan-Mar 1867, and I can use this to estimate a > birth in Nov 1866 - Mar 1867. This also allows the 'birth > registration' event to have different participants to the 'birth' event. > For example, a birth registration (in the UK, at least) has an > informant who is often but not always a parent. > > However, I'm surprised that (so far as I can tell) none of the usual > genealogical data models seem to allow for this. So how do other > people record civil registrations? Or am I unusual in having quite a > few people in my tree (generally cousins N-times removed) where the > registration quarter is my best estimate of their date of birth or death? I use Gramps from time to time & this enables me to use a range in the same way as yourself. It's possible to update this to a precise date it I feel a certificate is necessary. As an estimate of DoB it's good enough to evaluate alternative candidates and is sometimes better than baptism which can be out by a few years, or more when the register includes the note "baptism of an adult Quaker". -- Ian The Hotmail address is my spam-bin. Real mail address is iang at austonley org uk