General Chat

Can anyone tell me whether illegitimate births were always registered in the 1860s and 1870s? How much were rules about registration enforced? And if an illegitimate birth was registered in the mid-19th centuruy is this any indication of social class?

I don't think it would be an indicator of social class so much (I'm not sure, though) at that point, more perhaps that it wasn't until 1875 that the responsibility laid with the parent(s) to register the baby's birth. Prior to that, I think the idea was that it was the registrar's responsibility to make sure that all births/marriages/deaths were registered in the locality - but I can't imagine the registrar being able to know everything that was happening locally.

I suppose whether an illegitimate birth was registered or not then would probably be more likely to be down to whether the mother (or perhaps grandparent, if - say - the mother died in childbirth?) wanted to register her baby or not. If she thought the registrar was likely to judge her, perhaps she wouldn't?

All births were, by law, to be registered from 1837 onwards whether illegitimate or not.

Midwives etc had a duty to report the births.

some of course may have slipped the net but not many by all accounts.

It would have been nigh impossible to avoid if living in a village, for instance.

Socially it would have been difficult for a person to marry a person of 'quality' without the surname of a father on their birth/wedding certificate.....some may have made a name up on the marriage cert rather than have an empty space for the Father's name.

Even today....tis uncomfortable for some.

All births whether illegitimate or not were meant to be re gistered from July 1837 when registration began.

However there was no penalty for not registering a birth until 1875 when a fine was imposed for not registering a birth, so after this date most people did register, although I'm sure there were people who didn't take any notice of rules and regulations so there were probably still some births that went unregisterered.

I'd be more inclined to think that in the "upper" classes if a girl got pregnant a suitable husband would be quickly found for her and then a "premature" birth would follow.

Kath. x