London registration districts - Genealogists' Forum

Asa · #1 04-01-13, 08:01

Does anyone have any thoughts about precise registration districts were? I'm thinking of areas like Kings Cross - if you were born in the streets around the station you could be techinically be born in Islington, Pancras or Holborn I think but if you went along to register a death or birth at one of these were you likely to be sent off to what was considered the right one?

kiterunner · #2 04-01-13, 08:24

If you registered the birth at the wrong office, they would send the info on to the correct one. And it would still be listed under the correct one.

Asa · #3 04-01-13, 08:28

Ah right - thank you :-)

Merry · #4 04-01-13, 08:33

I think like all clerical jobs, there would have been good clerks and bad ones, efficient ones and lax ones, strict ones and those who said "life s too short"! lol

I know OH has two siblings on his tree born in the St Pancras area at the same address a couple of years apart (around 1850) who are registered in different districts though the boundary doesn't seem to have changed during the gap between their births, so I would guess this was down to some sort of error that was overlooked - I suspect this sort of thing may have happened a lot. Also many registration districts had boundaries that ran along main roads so you would have to know what number you lived at or what side of the road in order to go to the right office. I can see a lot of mistakes coming from that too!

I expect the Victorian administrators of the system did mean for specific streets to be in specific districts with exact boundaries (were their boundaries based on church parish boundaries that would have been pretty exact?), but in practice anything might happen!

Just my two penn'orth!!

Merry · #5 04-01-13, 08:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiterunner

If you registered the birth at the wrong office, they would send the info on to the correct one. And it would still be listed under the correct one.

That's what would have happened if Kate or I had worked at the reg office! But OH's two certs suggest that didn't always happen!!

Asa · #6 04-01-13, 08:49

Thanks Merry - I have a lot from Kings Cross and roundabouts and things don't always tally up:-) One great grandmother was born on Pentonville Road and another at the bottom of the Cally and although I know exactly where they were born their families don't always seem to!

Shona · #7 04-01-13, 09:13

And keep in mind birth registration and baptisms aren't always in the same place. A London-born niece was baptised in Scotland and one of the OH's nieces was born in Canada, yet baptised in another country.

Uncle John · #8 06-01-13, 19:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Merry

Also many registration districts had boundaries that ran along main roads so you would have to know what number you lived at or what side of the road in order to go to the right office. I can see a lot of mistakes coming from that too!

A non-London example of a local authority boundary running down the middle of a road - Poynters Road in Luton/Dunstable.