Short birth certificate 1930

[Lindsay]

I have a short birth certificate from 1930 which doesn't have the child's name on it.

All it has is the date of the birth, the child's sex and the name of the informant, who was the mother - no space at all for the child's name. Registration date is a month after the birth and the child appears as I'd expect on FreeBMD.

Was that normal for 1930? It seems very odd not to have a space for the child's name - unlike other short certs I have (from the 1890s and 1928) which do.

[JBee]

Maybe they hadn't chosen a name but had to register the birth within the 6 weeks time limit - was it 6 weeks then?

[kiterunner]

It won't be an actual short birth certificate as those were only introduced in 1947. Does it say "Certificate of Registry of Birth" near the top?

[Lindsay]

It says 'Form of Certificate of Registry of Birth or Stillbirth' at the top, refers to the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1874 section 30, and goes on

I the undersigned do hereby certify that the birth of a male (female crossed out) child (still crossed out) born on the (date added) has been duly registered by me at Entry number 450 of my register book no. 52. Name of informant (mother's name), qualification of informant mother. Date is 1 month after the birth

Whereas the 1928 cert I have is headed 'Certificate of registry of birth' and begins 'I the undersigned do hereby certify that the birth of John Smith born on the (date) has been duly registered by me at entry number...etc.

So the 1930 one is 'form of certificate', rather than certificate, but I have no idea what that means.

[kiterunner]

The Government website has this as Section 30 of the 1874 Act:

A registrar shall, upon demand made at the time of registering any birth by the person giving the information concerning the birth, and upon payment of a fee not exceeding threepence, give to such person a certificate under his hand, in the prescribed form, of having registered that birth.

I Googled for "form of certificate of registry of birth or stillbirth" and found an image on ancestry plus a few discussions on Rootsweb, all about certificates from the 1930's. And the example in the ancestry image has a pre-printed 193 for the year, so I guess they must have started using them in 1930 instead of the old "Certificate of Registry of Birth". Maybe because they wanted to use the same form for both births and stillbirths?

[Lindsay]

Yes, that's a possibility. It does seem strange not to have the name of the child on a birth certificate though!

[Janet]

Do you know for certain that it was not a stillbirth, Lindsay? I have no knowledge of the matter other than what turned up on Rootschat when I added "no child's name" to Kite's Google search:

Re: National Stillbirth register
« Reply #2 on: Sunday 05 July 15 16:28 BST (UK) »
Nobody has access to the Stillbirth Register except staff at GRO Headquarters!

I needed my mother's twin's certificate; so this is what I had to do:

1. Telephone the GRO, and explain what I wanted. 0300 123 1837
2. They sent me a form in the post (snail-mail!).
3. Fill in the form, and send it back - also snail-mail.

Within a short time I received the Stillbirth certificate.

There will be no child's name on the certificate.
Just parent's names, surname, date, address etc. as on a birth certificate.

Rootschat

[Lindsay]

Definitely not a stillbirth - the person in question is still alive and well! The name appears in the GRO index as normal too.

[Tom Tom]

I have one for my grandmother, born 1930.
Exactly the same as yours. Space for gender of the child, but no space for the name. She had to buy a proper certificate later in life with her name on it as sometimes they would accept it as proof and sometimes people wouldn't.
I am not at home at the momen, but shall try and scan it in when I get back.