Chalk wrote: > 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. It was up to the regiatrar to find the newborns. If he didn't, the parents were supposed to go and register the child themselves within 6 weeks (42 days) of the birth. However, there was no financial penalties for the parents if they didn't do so, hence a number of ones missing who might only be found via censuses, when they married or when they died. I have to say I find it quite amazing you have so many missing registration. I would suggest most are there but not appearing as expected. Some may have been mistranscribed either in the registrar's return or by the GRO clerks whilst others were illegitimate and thus registered under the mother's name. Others may have been registered under their biological father's name but appear in cenuses under their stepfather's name after their father's death. Still others may have been adopted/fosterd by other family members who had a different name from the birth mother/parents. In a large database of post civil registration births for my families and in my OPC parishes, I have only one who is missing from the indices - and I strongly suspect she was fostered/adopted by her birth mother's sister and brother in law. There were certainly some doubts her parents really were the biological parents because she said later in life she was their dau. I also find it very strange that you have found so many children whose births and deaths weren't registered up to the age of 10. A death cert was required before burial could take place. Whilst I acknowledge there were instances of the burial taking place before the production of the death cert and in a few cases not at all, I very much doubt this happened as much as you imply. Again, it's not something I have found. -- Charani (UK) OPC for Walton, Ashcott, Shapwick, Greinton and Clutton, SOM http://wsom-opc.org.uk