Registration quarters vs birth dates

[wanderingtopographer]

I've been trying to find this information online and in my small collection of genealogy books to no avail, so thought I would try here on the off-chance someone else has stumbled across it! If a child was born, for example, in September but the birth was not registered until mid October, would they appear in the GRO index for the September quarter or the December one? I suppose what I'm asking is did they index the actual birth date or the date it was registered?

It seems a small detail, but I often use "quarter windows" to narrow people down by age when searching other records if there's a common surname involved, beyond that, it just irks me that I don't know the answer ;-)

I'm pretty sure the GRO records are indexed according to the date of registration. So the child's record would be in the December quarter.

Yes, I agree. Registration date, not birth date.

Just to check, I looked up my dad. He was born in late March but shows up in the second (June) quarter of the year.

And my grandmother, also born in March, but earlier in the month, also appears in the second quarter.

Agree with the others. My great grandmother was born in December 1887 but she appears in the GRO index in Q1 1888.

Ah thank, thank you all! Shame about the quarter window technique, and there I was feeling a bit clever 😉