A missing twin in 1851?

[BlueSavannah]

Hi,

I've noticed on the birth certificate I have of an Alfred Carter who was born on the 3rd March 1851 in Dunstable, Beds, that a time of 6.30pm is given. I know this generally means that the child was a twin; however, there is no other Carter registered on the same page. There is a Jane Cutler in the same district/page but she is clearly Cutler on the image and Alfred is clearly Carter.

Is it likely that the other child may have been Stillborn and therefore not registered anywhere?

Regards

[Margaret in Burton]

Hi,

I've noticed on the birth certificate I have of an Alfred Carter who was born on the 3rd March 1851 in Dunstable, Beds, that a time of 6.30pm is given. I know this generally means that the child was a twin; however, there is no other Carter registered on the same page. There is a Jane Cutler in the same district/page but she is clearly Cutler on the image and Alfred is clearly Carter.

Is it likely that the other child may have been Stillborn and therefore not registered anywhere?

Regards

I have the same thing with OH's great grandmother. A time of birth but no apparent twin registered. I have always assumed a still birth.

[Merry]

If Alfred was a twin but the other baby was stillborn there really would be no reason for the registrar to record the time of birth, but of course that could be the reason. Some registrars recorded the time for all births, but generally that was in the years immediately after 1837.

If it was me, I would phone whoever holds the Dunstable registers and ask if they could look at other certs in the same register to see if they have time too. :)

[BlueSavannah]

Thank you Marg & Merry

I will try and find who has the Dunstable registers and ask them to check. It wouldn't suprise me if he was a twin as 6 years earlier, his parents had another set of twins where one died shortly after birth.

Am I right in presuming still births were not registered at this time?

[Merry]

Yes, that's right. (Reg of stillbirths began 1st July 1927)

[Shona]

Are there any burial records? I have seen 'still-born child of x' quite a lot in some parish registers.

[BlueSavannah]

I haven't found any burial records online for Dunstable. I am unable to get to Bedfordshire Records Office :(

[Jill]

An unusually helpful clerk from the GRO once sent me the entire page from 1850 of the record books when there was an element of doubt about the exact village where the person's birthplace was (I'd said Stopham, should have been Stedham, but both are in the same reg district).

Every one of the twenty or so entries had a time of birth and not one was a twin, so it may be down to an overzealous registrar asking an additional question.

[BlueSavannah]

Thank you Jill. You and Merry could be right. I think I just automatically went for the twin option because the previous children they had were also twins but they were born in a different county. I will find out who holds Dunstable registers and see if they are helpful at all in looking at if times of birth were given for others on the page :)

[Merry]

Looks like there's only two possibilities:

Registers currently held at : Luton and Central Bedfordshire:


The Register Office
6 George Street
West Luton
LU1 2BJ

[email protected]


The Register Office
Pilgrim House
20 Brickhill Drive
Bedford
MK41 7PZ

[email protected]

[BlueSavannah]

Central Bedfordshire have just got back to me regarding another query I had with the Carter line and they were really helpful so will give them a call on Monday and ask them if they can help at all with Alfred and any possible twin :)