Genealogy Chat

Can anyone tell me if a birth recorded in 1874 would state if the child was a twin ?

surely the time of birth is supposed to be shown if the child is a twin?

and similarly, the time of birth would be shown on the twin's certificate.




However, as always with all bmds .............. this is not a fail-safe!


we've all seen twin certificates with no time shown, and singleton births with a time shown




You can look for yourself ............................ use freebmd.org.uk



Enter the child's name, get the record, then click on the page number .......



that will show all births registered in the same period.


If there is another child with the same surname listed next to the one you know ............ then it is a good indication that there was a live twin birth



Edited 09:25 pm

sorry ............... I've just realised that this is not clear that I meant that you could do for yourself what Andrew suggested you ask people on here to do ......... check whether there could be a set of twins by looking on freebmd.org.uk

I think the only way you can be sure is to buy a certificate for each person that you think are twins and see if the details match.

If you've found the birth on freebmd, clicked on the page number, and found that another child with the same surname is recorded.................follow-through with a check of the 1881 census, which is free to all on familysearch website

https://familysearch.org/

As far as I know, multiple births have always meant to be identified on the certs by the inclusion of the time........................it would be vital where an inheritance is involved to know which child was the first-born

Jacqueline .................

I think that it has always been "intended" that multiple births be identified by adding time of birth to the date .....................



however, I think we all know what "intentions" mean :-D



People have posted on here that the time has not been on one twin certificate but was on the other

.................. and others have posted that a singleton birth certificate did have a time on.

One example of the last led to a lot of searching in an attempt to prove whether or not there had been a multiple birth. It seemed that some Registrars did not fully understand the rules.

Hello Julie and welcome to the Community boards.



(I will let Julie know how to find her replies) :-)

One of my ancestors had a time on her birth certificate; but I've been unable to find any evdence of a twin.

Graham



you're not the first person I've heard say that .....................


it does seem as if some Registrars put down the time of birth even for singletons ........... perhaps a mis-understanding of the regulations?