Birth certificate details
 

I've just downloaded an 1838 digital image, and realise that nowhere does it say where the child was born.
The only address on the image is the residence of the informant. This is infuriating, since in 1841, the family is in the workhouse, and in 1891 the subject of the certificate gives the workhouse area as his place of birth.
Does anyone know when this changed?

A lot of the early birth certificates do seem to have just the parish in "when and where born" but I have found a transcription of one from 1843 which has an exact address, so there doesn't seem to have been a hard and fast rule at that time.

The provided heading simply says "when born". I looked at an 1865 birth cert and it said "when and where born".

I imagine that the authorities realised pretty quickly what problems it would cause, and changed things. I've got an 1841 cert that I'm fairly sure gives the birthplace.

The earlier cert I have is 1838 Q4 and that states 'When and were born'.

This is in deepest rural Norfolk. I wonder if it was an error that was corrected very quickly, but only when the forms were reprinted? When I started researching, and visiting the churches, they still hadn't filled up the marriage registers that had been started in 1837.

I have a few early certs which have only the vaguest address. Presumably the Vicar/Registrar thought it wasn't important because everyone knew where so-and-so lived.

OC

In the 1980s, "Riverside Cottage, Xham" would reach my great-aunt. Admittedly, when I accepted a lift from a stranger (:eek: - different times!) and mentioned her, he said, "Oh yes, I know Mrs Y"


Granny's birth certificate in the 1890s only names the village.


Interestingly, someone has posted the digital image of a birth in a Norfolk village in the 1860s, and the heading there only says when born, though in this case the hamlet is named.

So is it just the heading on the digital image that sometimes says When Born and not where? (as opposed to a pdf or a proper cert). Did you only notice the heading because, in this case, there was no place of birth recorded?

I think a "proper" certificate will have used the stationery available at the time. The old ones I've got say things like 3/87 20,000, which I always assumed to be the date and the print run.

I assume (dangerous, I know!) that the digital images use the contemporary headings at the tops of the pages. While these are the modern renderings, I've assumed that they've looked, and used what was given.

And yes, it was because the place of birth - and the choice was the village, or a workhouse 15 miles away - wasn't given that I noticed it did not seem to be a requirement.