What is the point of announcing a birth or marriage in The Times?

[sharkfromjaws]

Deaths I get, people lose touch over a long life. But surely everyone who cares knows you well enough to know you've got married or had a child without having to read it in the paper?

It's for the upper echelons of society or people who wannabe in the upper echelons of society.

The Times is paper of record.

I wouldn't do it myself though

Tradition, not something ordinary people would do ever but for the upper classes it was always the done thing, and those aspiring to join their ranks of course!

It's the equivalent of the court circular, it's something that the aristocracy have always done, and still do.

Because Granny thinks it's nice.

I strongly suspect it's dying out.

It's traditional for some families. Odd to everyone else but normal for them.

My mum put an announcement in her local paper for my wedding and for when I had my DCs. Again, never something I would do but totally normal for her generation!

Tradition!

In a lot of cases these days I think it's to show off how upper class you are by choosing the most batshit names for your baby. Wulfstan (brother to Cleopatra) and Ptarmigan probably are the best I've seen!
https://www.dailyedge.ie/posh-baby-names-2613063-Feb2016/

It's traditional. I was announced in The Times! 😊

It's just for posh people I think. Or rich people who think they're important. I honestly don't really know why a normal person would read it or care. I guess they want gifts off people they don't even know? You wouldn't think they'd need it. It is rather silly.

I wonder if Bridgerton fans will bring back this tradition.

It's pretty much died out. People with 'notions' still do it. Hop over to Ireland and every death is publicised.

So everyone can go to the funeral.

I dont read the Times but if I did I might see a birth announcement by someone I know but might have lost touch with and it would be nice (to me anyway) to hear their news.

So everyone can go to the funeral.

Yes, rip.ie is very useful!

Everyone with a connection to the family will go to either the removal or funeral (usually to the removal to shake hands if the connection isn't a close one). These happen within 2 to 3 days of the death usually, so it's important to get word out fast. So the death announcements have a very practical purpose.

Thcwoukd be some forward planning for a birth or marriage announcement 😂

That's great! They sound like cars!

Lots of people do it to put in a memory box. Especially for birth announcements, so when the kid grows up they can see what the news was like then.

Or you can just do what my brother did for my kids - buy a copy of any newspaper published on the date they were born. They don't need to see evidence of their own arrival in it - they know they're here.

It's tradition, especially among 'society' folk.

Great place to both laugh at and find baby names - we certainly did both.

😁I was replying to Boulevardofbrokendreamss about Ireland.

@Vroomfondleswaistcoat my sister bought a newspaper on the day my daughter was born for her to keep.
Unfortunately the main story in it was that Austrian man who had kept his daughter in his basement for 20 years. Very grim.

My birth, engagement and kids births were in the Times- we're definitely not High Society! Just tradition really.

Posh points.

My engagement was announced. It was my parents way of communicating it to their social circle, not mine. It was a way to tell everyone in disparate locations quickly and cheaply (before email/text became ubiquitous).