Lost Cousins newsletter - late Jan 2024

[JBee]

https://www.lostcousins.com/newsletters2/latejan24news.htm

[Merry]

There's a bit I'm wondering about in this newsletter.

The sections about widows registering illegitimate babies - the third para under the image of the 1851 cert states that when a married woman gives birth, the only man she can register as the father is her husband. Is that correct, or should it say (in Eng/Wales anyway), the only man a married woman can record as the father without him attending the registration or signing a declaration, is her husband?

Any thoughts?

[kiterunner]

This is the current version of the law:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Eliz2/1-2/20

See section 10.

[kiterunner]

I do hate reading articles which say things like "we naturally assume". Speak for yourself!

[Merry]

lol!

How do I find section 10? :o

[kiterunner]

lol!

How do I find section 10? :o

CTRL + F then type "Registration of father". (Or whatever you use to search the page.)

[Phoenix]

It would be interesting to know what the 1858 Act said - it has been repealed in its entirety.

I heard a lecture on registration of births, from which I got the impression that there were forever being minor amendments.

[Merry]

I know I have a cert for OH's tree where a married woman had several children with the man she left her husband for and the new man is named on the cert we bought to confirm. I thought I knew who the couple were, but it turns out I don't remember! I'm pretty sure this birth was in the 1850s. Of course the registrar may have assumed/been told she was a widow with a new man, but her husband was definitely still living.

[kiterunner]

It would be interesting to know what the 1858 Act said - it has been repealed in its entirety.

I heard a lecture on registration of births, from which I got the impression that there were forever being minor amendments.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/21-22/25/enacted

[Olde Crone]

Nearly 50 years ago, the Registrar came twice a week to the maternity hospital to register births (and to be advised of deaths I expect). I must have looked like a bit of a goer in my floor length maternity nightie and canvas nursing bra because after asking me if I was married, he snapped "when and where?". It's taken nearly 50 years and this thread to make me realise he probably went back to the office and checked, lol.

It's always been my understanding that (until recently) the father of a married woman's child is her husband unless she offers the information that he isn't. (When she, not the husband, is doing the registration.) I have several times come across birth certificates of a child born to a married/widowed woman which bear no father's name. Indexes are finding aids not information packs - if you want the information then buy the certificate! Thought every serious researcher understood that.

OC

[Phoenix]

Think I need a new laptop. Whenever I click on links, nothing happens.