Genealogy Chat

I have always been told there were twins in my mothers mother side of the family. But I have never found them!
How were they indexed for births?

Assuming they were born alive, they'd be listed with the same page and volume number on the gro index.

Births prior to 1870ish didn't have to be registered so they may be missing, and there is always the possiblilty that another couple with the same surname gave birth in the same quarter and reg district.

It's slighlty easier to identify after Sep 1911 when the mothers maiden name was shown, but even then, there is the possibility of co-incidence.

If one of the twins was born dead, then that birth won't be on the gro index

One set of twins know about in my family (names changed as they are still living)

Births Mar 1937 (>99%)
Ivans Hilary A Monday Edmonton 3a 1079
Ivans Henrietta T Monday Edmonton 3a 1079

Thanks DetEcTive.
I have wondered if one of the twins may have died so therefore not indexed. Maybe I will just never know!! :-(

If a child is born alive, the birth has to be registered.....after 1875

Until 1875 there were no penalties for not registering which meant that countless births went unrecorded.

How far back is this twin birth supposed to have taken place?

Try researching censuses......................

There are two births in my family that were not registered, one in 1878 and another in 1884. Both were illegitimate births so don't know if that had any bearing on the mums not registering them or not.

Why not put details on here (as long as they are still not living) and someone may be able to help. Mis-spellings, incorrect year of birth etc have meant births have not been found when infact they have been registered.

Chris

In the case of twin births, the time is recorded on the birth cert...........one would assume this would apply even if one of the two was stillborn?

Can anyone confirm.............or otherwise.

If one of a set of twins is born as a stillbirth, then the surviving 'twin' is not a twin and no time of birth is shown. To be a twin means that another baby was born alive at the same time. The rules relating to multiple births and stillbirths can seem quite 'harsh' and insensitive.

Re DetEcTive's "Assuming they were born alive, they'd be listed with the same page and volume number on the gro index."
True 90% of time but in 10% of cases, they'ld be on adjacent pages.

So lets look at these "triplets":
Births Mar 1838 (>99%)
Seddon John Wigan 21 718
Seddon Martha Wigan 21 718
Seddon Margaret Wigan 21 719

If a local index is available - see http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/local_bmd - then this can help resolve their status.
A local register - the one actually signed by the informant when rego'ing the birth - has 100 pages with 5 entries per page.
The local index will give either a local page # or an entry # in their ref - I've appended this ref below.

Births Mar 1838 (>99%)
Seddon John Wigan 21 718 ASPL/1/128
Seddon Martha Wigan 21 718 ASPL/1/134
Seddon Margaret Wigan 21 719 ASPL/1/137

Since the last # exceeds 100, we can tell it's an entry #, and none are adjacent, so there're no multiple births here.
Usually, the local ref for births & deaths is a page #, and an entry # for marrs.
Even when it's just a page #, there's a 9% chance two randomly chosen names from a GRO page will be on non-adjacent local pages

In this case, there's a further indicator - the mum's maiden surname is given in the index - and the 3 births have difft mums.

Lancashire Birth indexes for the years: 1837
Surname Forename(s) Sub-District Registers At Mother's Maiden Name Reference
SEDDON John Aspull Wigan & Leigh ATHERTON ASPL/1/128
SEDDON Martha Aspull Wigan & Leigh HATTON ASPL/1/134
SEDDON Margaret Aspull Wigan & Leigh LOWE ASPL/1/137

[LancsBMD indexes by year of birth, not year of registration, so all 3 were probly born late in Dec, but rego'ed in Jan]

My mother and her twin sister were registered in England and the only indication on their certificates was the TIME of the birth alongside each name. Seemingly Scottish registration indicates by the word (twin) alongside the first name. My mother and her twin were parted soon after birth, once child being handed over to a couple in England, and the other one handed over to a couple in Scotland. They were never to meet but I have found the Scottish thread now thank goodness.

Paula. :-)

My mother and her twin sister were registered in England and the only indication on their certificates was the TIME of the birth alongside each name. Seemingly Scottish registration indicates by the word (twin) alongside the first name. My mother and her twin were parted soon after birth, one child being handed over to a couple in England, and the other handed over to a couple in Scotland. They were never to meet but I have found the Scottish thread now thank goodness although the twins are now dead.

Paula. :-)