Adrian Parry wrote: > Although civil registration was introduced with effect from 1 July 1837, the > registration of births was NOT compulsory (i.e. there was no penalty for > failing to register a birth) until the mid 1870s. As a result many births > were not registered during the early years. That's a genealogical urban legend. At that time, the government did NOT pass laws that were optional. All births (as well as marriages and deaths) HAD to be registered. What changed was the person whose responsibility it was to register the births. It was initially the local registrar's but later shifted to the parents on whom there was a financial penalty if they failed to register the birth within 6 weeks (42 days) of the birth. Even after this, there were still some births that weren't registered and some with "massaged" birth dates where parents adjusted the date of birth to avoid a fine. -- Charani (UK) OPC for Walton, Ashcott, Shapwick, Greinton and Clutton, SOM http://wsom-opc.org.uk

How could it be compulsory for the parents if they could not be penalised? As you say, in the early days it was the responsibility of the Registrar to seek out and deal with the registration! Adrian ----- Original Message ----- From: "Charani" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, August 06, 2012 11:00 AM Subject: Re: [MDX] birth recprds/certificates of birth > Adrian Parry wrote: >> Although civil registration was introduced with effect from 1 July 1837, >> the >> registration of births was NOT compulsory (i.e. there was no penalty for >> failing to register a birth) until the mid 1870s. As a result many births >> were not registered during the early years. > > That's a genealogical urban legend. > > At that time, the government did NOT pass laws that were optional. > All births (as well as marriages and deaths) HAD to be registered. > What changed was the person whose responsibility it was to register > the births. It was initially the local registrar's but later shifted > to the parents on whom there was a financial penalty if they failed to > register the birth within 6 weeks (42 days) of the birth. > > Even after this, there were still some births that weren't registered > and some with "massaged" birth dates where parents adjusted the date > of birth to avoid a fine. > > -- > Charani (UK) > OPC for Walton, Ashcott, Shapwick, > Greinton and Clutton, SOM > http://wsom-opc.org.uk > > ************************************** > Send your List messages using **PLAIN TEXT** and always **TRIM AWAY** > superfluous old messages in replies. > > **MEANINGFUL Subject Lines - who, what, where, when, with SURNAMES in > CAPITAL letters** > > List Admin can be contacted at: [email protected] > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' > without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Adrian Parry wrote: > How could it be compulsory for the parents if they could not be penalised? > As you say, in the early days it was the responsibility of the Registrar to > seek out and deal with the registration! The *registration* of births WAS compulsory. It was just not the *responsibility* of the parents to do the registering to begin with. It didn't make it any less compulsory because they weren't penalised. I see Caroline has said the same thing. If the registrar didn't find the parents and newborn, the parents were supposed to do so. That they didn't may have meant they didn't know/ realise they were supposed to, didn't know where the register office was or believed baptism was registration enough. It may have been the registrar didn't find the newborn and the parents sent an older child to do the registration who didn't actually do so. (My great grandfather had two different birth dates: his real one and the one his sisters registered him with because they'd forgotten the actual date by the time they'd walked from their village to the registrar's office in the next town.) -- Charani (UK) OPC for Walton, Ashcott, Shapwick, Greinton and Clutton, SOM http://wsom-opc.org.uk