> Birth certificates might have been law but were not prescriptive, I have > over 200 births from all over the country missing certificates from my tree > that appear on baptism or census records. This gets better after 1875. > Also have noticed transcribing burial records that a lot of child > births/deaths were not recorded right up to 10 years of age. This seems very surprising. The odd birth was not registered, but to find - or so not to find -many does suggest to me that all the avenues of alternative spelling. incorect year dating, illegitimate birth, variant name from subsequent marriage to a (second) husband, 'wrong' location etc etc have not been fully explored. Although it was possible to avoid birth registration, casually or deliberately, in cities or remote rural areas, where the vigilance of the registrar slipped, most were keenly watching the change in shape of local ladies, because much of their income depended on numbers of registrations. Deaths of new born infants, even toddlers, may not be observed and the corpse slipped into a relative's coffin, to avoid burial fees, but chikldren up to ten sound dubious - disposing of a fairly large corpse is not at all easy in towns, though possible in rural areas - that is, if nosy neighbours were not watching, as they tended to. Going over these 'missing' entries with the full detective instinct working may prove productive. EVE > > ************************************** > 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 Author of The McLaughlin Guides for Family Historians Secretary, Bucks Genealogical Society