Registering death of a baby, 1912

[Susie Q]

Hello All,
The baby in question is Isabella Grace Fleming, born in 1912 in Torphichen.
Her mother, of the same name, ( m.s. Chalmers ) died on 14th July, 1912. COD was placenta praevia, so I'm assuming she died in childbirth and that the bairn died too.
The thing is, I can't find a death cert. for the wee one. Was one bound to register an infant death ?

Regards
Cath

[Russell]

Hi Cath

The simple answer is YES. It was a legal obligation to register a death if the original birth had been registered. That was the purpose of the legislation brought in in 1855.
All live births needed to be registered even if the infant survived only an hour or two after being born.
Still births were not registered.
We have the birth of twins in our tree at about that time. both births were registered and appear on the same page of the register. The first little girl lasted only a few hours and dided the same day. The other girl survived almost 36 hours and her death too was on the same page as her twin. So sad, as the mother was unable to have any more children and loved young ones.

Russell

An afterthought " perhaps she was registered under a variant of her name e.g. without her middle name or a different spelling of her forename "

[LesleyB]

Hi Cath
On SP there is a death in Midlothian for Isabella Fleming, 1912, aged 0-1- could that be the one you are looking for?

Best wishes
Lesley

[Alcluith]

My great grandmother had twins, one stillborn, the second a boy was registered and died a few months old. Both buried in same unmarked plot.

The only reason that family know this was that my grandmother informed an aunt one day visiting the graveyard.

We have the birth/death certificates for the surviving twin, but with no indication that he was a twin.
Apart from the verbal history we would never have known about these twins.

My wife's grandmother also lost twins and again nothing anywhere except verbal history.

In this day and age would it not make more sense to register all birth & deaths ???

dd

[AndrewP]

In this day and age would it not make more sense to register all birth & deaths ???

Hi Drew,

I am fairly sure that it goes back to the start of statutory registration in 1855 that all live births should be registered, even if the life was only minutes or hours long. Then similarly all deaths should be registered, including those whose lives were only minutes or hours long.

Still births are the exeption. That register starts from the 1930s (1939 I think), but is not open to the public, not even as an index. Prior to the 1930s any birth which was not live went unregistered.

All the best,

AndrewP

[LesleyB]

Hi all
On attempting to replicate the search above I now cannot find that Isabella Fleming aged 0-1 in Midlothian. I think there must have been some gremlins at work or my brain must have been ahead of my clicking the other night as now that Isabella turns up as dying in Glasgow City, which seems unlikely to be the correct one.

However, there is a Isabella Fleming, born 1912, died 1914 in Midlothian - but she is Isabella Agnes Fleming, so clearly not the correct one. My apologies for inadvertantly leading you all up the garden path!

Best wishes
Lesley

[Russell]

Hi Lesley

Genealogy, as you know well, is like door-to-door canvassing. We all go up loads of garden paths to be met with negative answers. If we do hit on the correct path all the other 'failures' fade into insignificance and we dance our way down the street.

Russell

[DavidWW]

"Placenta praevia" doesn't always result in the death of the child. A normal vaginal birth is possible when the condition is partial. If it's total, then a Caesarean is possible.

The full CoD is shown as "Placenta praevia anaemia".

What does the 1912 birth record show as the place of birth?

There is the death of a Jessie J A FLEMING in Torphichin, aged 61, in Torphichen in 1972? .............

dww

[Susie Q]

David,
According to the Index, she was born in Torphichen. Why would you think that Jessie might be Isabella ? Is this a weird diminutive I'm not aware of ?
Cath

[DavidWW]

David,
According to the Index, she was born in Torphichen. Why would you think that Jessie might be Isabella ? Is this a weird diminutive I'm not aware of ?
Cath

Cath

I'm not suggesting that Isabella is Jessie, just highlighting an interesting coincidence in terms of surname, place, and age.

That written, the stresses surrounding a death and the subsequent registration are well known to have lead to major errors. And if the informant wasn't a close relative............

I'm an experience genealogist, so I'd get a death registration correct? Wrong! When registering the death of my father-in-law in 2000, I nearly got the maiden name of his mother wrong. Thankfully, this was picked up on the doublecheck before the info was "entered" into the system, - the registration office involved were one of the first to be tied into the GROS electronic registration system .........

Many such an apparant coincidence has turned out to have some significance or use.

dww