I can remember many years ago of the mother of someone I knew, telling me that her daughter was a twin, but the other one had been miscarried very early on in the pregnancy, before it was realised that she was still pregnant. So nothing would have gone in any register at all. Likewise the baby I lost exactly 20 years ago come the end of the week. I was in hospital and as it was 23 weeks term, there is no record of him, other in my own hospital records. Never did find out what happened to him, but then, that is another story. So Pauline, Margaret may well be right, there was no record of the twin, just a case of like my own twin aunt, I have a note of Mary and this wasn't just from her twin sister, but also from my father, ten years older than her, but then, I haven't as yet, gone down the burial route to prove or disprove it. Frances Margaret Couch wrote: > Hi Pauline > This thread has kept the list busy! > Another possibility that I don't think has been aired here, is that the twin > might have died during the pregnancy, even quite early in the pregnancy, > then the surviving twin carried to term. During delivery, the presence of > the probably tiny, deceased twin would have been noted by those in > attendance, but given the timeframe (1890's), would have been treated the > same way as the placenta, depending on the family traditions at the time, > may have been buried in the back yard. There would be no requirement to > register this as a stillbirth or for burial in a cemetery. However, the > presence of the twin would have been talked about in the family - the > children of the family incorporating into their own stories at their level > of understanding, (the brother was only six years old at the time). Being a > twin is/was special and likely to be remembered and clung on to. > Good luck with your search for a twin "given away"! > > Margaret