Birth registration date.

[lucy542]

Hi to cut a long story short. I will explain it best I can as it can get a little confusing.

Someone in my family (great Nan’s sister in law) told my mum my Nan’s (my mums mum) dad isn’t her real dad and that my great nan had an affair with an Asian man. This made us question things so I set up an ancestry account and I’ve just recently started doing my family tree on there. I’ve also done the dna test to find family members and ethnicity, waiting on results.
Both my Nan’s have passed.
We was told my Nan’s (mums mum) birthday was the end of February and she always celebrated her birthday the end of February but on ancestry it says her birth was registered in the January before. She was born in 1950. This is definitely her birth registration.
I could understand it if it said her birth was registered in March or April but I don’t understand why it says the January before.
I have tried to order my Nan’s birth certificate to see what it says on that.
Also, my mum remembers my great grandad (mums mums dad) telling her he went to register my Nan’s birth by himself. Wouldn’t have my nan had to be there aswell? They was married.
The only reason we can think of as to why it says that the birth is registered in January is either a mistake on ancestry but not sure how it could be a mistake or that she was born in January and my great nan and grandad kept my Nan’s birth a secret so dates of her pregnancy didn’t match up to the other man’s affair with my great nan, if that story is true.
Just to mention aswell that my great Nan’s family was really religious and stopped talking to her years and years ago, not sure when. In 1980 her mum died and none of her family would allow her to go to the funeral. When she died herself none of her family went to her funeral. When my nan (mums mum) got married, my nan’s (mums mums mum) Sister kept her curtains shut all day. She lived round the corner and none of my great Nan’s family went. They used to ignore us in the street if they seen us. It’s upsetting that my Nan’s got treated like that. Could they have stopped speaking to her because of the affair, if it’s true. Could my grandad of known about the affair, if it’s true.
So I’m wondering, as it says January was the birth registration month does that look like its correct? I’m just confused by everything at the moment, don’t know what to believe.
Thanks for reading x

Thanks so much for help

I registered on that last night and it didn’t show 1950 to select but I think I might of clicked on the wrong thing on there. If I get no success with the council I will try again on there.

You have to type in 1950

Where was the event registered?
Select England / Wales

What type of event was it?
Select birth

When was the event registered?
Type 1950 in the box

How can the event be identified?
Select I know the GRO Index reference

Then fill in the details as per my previous post.

Good luck!

For some reason I have often found on Ancestry on the search results the birth month comes up as the first month of the quarter, although it doesn't actually say it's a quarter as they call the quarters the name of the month beginning that quarter rather than the end month, eg they call the March quarter January and anyone born in that quarter would come up as being born in January. That's what I suspect has happened here and she actually was born in the February which is the March quarter but the search results will say born January 1950. The actual birth certificate will show all the details.

Just realised aswell that on the birth index before I click on it it says…

My Nan’s name
Birth Jan 1950 The area she was born.

surely it won’t say Jan if she was born in February?

only way I'll find out is getting her birth certificate.

Thanks for all your help

i will check what peoples say in my family tree see if it’s the first month of the quarter for them.
I’m new to it all, I only started researching this week

That's because the date you've shown refers to the quarter she was born, not the actual month of birth, and for some reason they call the March quarter January, the June quarter April etc. I feel sure you'll find that she was actually born in February when you get the certificate.

I have an Ancestry account and it gives my birth as July when it's actually September. That's because my birth must have been registered in the July/August/September quarter. The index (which is all Ancestry has) only provides the quarter not the exact birth month.

Thanks for your help.

The quarters are confusing.

Would this explain the birth was registered in January aswell?

It is confusing if you don't know their system. In the UK births are registered by quarter which we would refer to as March, June, September and December. Each quarter an index is made of all the births registered and then from that index you can order the certificate which will give you all the details. For some reason( maybe because it's American), Ancestry has these quarterly indexes but calls them the months of January, April, July and October. Ancestry doesn't know which month in a quarter the person was actually born because they don't have access to the actual certificates, only the indexes. So when the search results come up and it says born January 1950 it means she was born in either January, February or March 1950, they don't know which of those months it is, only the certificate will reveal the actual birth and registration date.

Thanks.
I have just checked my great grandads and he was born beginning of December 1927 but says he was born January 1928 on the birth index. When I check his death record it says his real date of birth aswell as when he died.
Makes sense now.

The indices are filed by the date of registration, not the actual date of birth. So the parent/s of a child born towards the end of December may not have gone to the register office to register the birth and collect the birth certificate until some time in January. By that stage, the registrar would have already sent off copies of all the registrations made in the Oct-Dec quarter, so the child's registration quarter would be the Jan-Mar one, even though their date of birth was in December.

One reason why some people might have had their birthday 'postponed' is if they were conceived out of wedlock and were born less than nine months after their parents' marriage. People liked to hide that sort of thing in those days.

this ^ explains the situation very clearly

One reason why some people might have had their birthday 'postponed' is if they were conceived out of wedlock and were born less than nine months after their parents' marriage. People liked to hide that sort of thing in those days.

also there was a fine for late registration (come in as the onus on the parent to register the birth in 1870s) - so sometimes the date of birth maybe a few days out to avoid the fine