Why do we have to reregister birth?

[EllaRees]

We went to give notice of our intention to marry and the registrar said we would have to get our 15month old's birth re-registered after we were married. Why? Surely 'illegitimacy' is a thing of the past?!

just puts your married name on the birth certificate... I guess its to keep records up to date ?

Thanks for replying. i found several council websites saying the natural parents are legally obliged to reregister - if you google it various ones pop up.

I never knew about this. The reason is to show that the child becomes a child of the marriage.

This is the link:

www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentcitizensandrights/Registeringlifeevents/Birthandadoptionrecords/Registeringorchangingabirthrecord/DG_175620

we were advised that DH's parental responsibilities changed when we got married - and it makes a bit of sense really.

when you register a birth, the mother is present and frequently AN Other (DP) is there as the father.

it is entirely possible to subsequently marry AN Other (notDP) with the same name and change YOUR legal standing but not the child's.
it is a legal declaration that your now dH is the same person as your dP.

does that make sense? it's basically to give your DC the same legal standings as the adults when a marriage takes place. and not just another money making scheme when you have to pay more fees, oh no

Nope
Ask any Solicitor - the nightmare of 'common law marriage', when a loved life long DP dies without a will and the consequences for illegitimate children rumble on

We married after DD was born and were asked if we wanted to re-register her birth, we said no (DH was already on the certificate as her father), and that was that. We weren't told that we had to do it

I didn't know you had to. I re-registered because I wanted to.

The registrar said "the old certificate will never be referred to again" in a dark way, as if I'd committed some dreadful crime by having a child out of wedlock..

I think there is a note put on the original record, referring to the new one. It looks like you do have to do it within 3 months of marriage, but if you don't you can only be fined £2!

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1976/31/section/9

You only have to do this if the fathers name was originally left blank.

If the father registered the birth with you and his name is already on the birth certificate, then you marry him, you don't have to re-register, surely?

Read the link I posted. That says what you must do.

You are legally supposed to reregister but lots of people don't. They're not going to send the registration police after you.

My DP and I have 5 children. He is on all their birth certificates although because of their ages he only has PR for 1 of them. They also have his surname. When we finally get round to getting married do we still need to reregister them if I decide to keep my surname. (haven't decided yet still thinking about it).

I'm in Scotland and we were told we could but not that we had to. Must check wirh DB if he did his dd last year. He is in England

I have tried to do this twice but both times have been told that there are no appointments at the registry office and to ring back in six months. So I haven't bothered

we are in the same position and I don't want to do it either. I'm not changing my name, DP is already named on the birth certificates and has parental responsibility. Like someone else said- it is re-writing history. We were not married, why pretend otherwise? I still don't fully understand what extra legal rights the children get from us doing it- can anyone explain?

It's all to do with parental responsibility. Married parents automatically have joint parental responsibility. If parents are unmarried, only the mother has automatic parental responsibility.

Unmarried fathers can acquire parental responsibility by
i) being named on the birth certificate with the consent of the mother.
ii) entering a 'parental responsibility agreement' with the mother
iii) getting a parental responsibility order from the court
iv) being appointed guardian in the mother's will (he'll assume PR on her death)
v) obtaining a residence order from the court, or
vi) marrying the mother.

So if your partner is named on your DC's birth certificate, then nothing will really change. But I guess there are many cases where partners are not named on the birth certificate and so it would be wise for the birth to be re-registered upon marriage in order for them to protect their parental responsibility rights.

Ah, if that is the reason then we are ok- he is named on the birth certificates. Just didn't like the idea of changing history and pretending that we were married when we weren't and that it is a dreadful secret to hide.

PR is a red herring. If the father is named on the birth certificate he already has PR. The only change with getting married is that his PR cannot be taken away by court order.

The need to re-register the birth is in the Legitimacy Act 1976. Legally, any child born out of wedlock is illegitimate. However, if the parents subsequently marry the child becomes legitimate. The Legitimacy Act requires the parents to re-register the birth within 3 months of marriage. If they fail to do so they can be fined. The maximum fine is £2! I'm sure the possibility of a £2 fine will act as a big deterrent...

Whether or not a child is classed as legitimate makes no real difference these days. It used to affect inheritance rights.

rubyrubyruby we'll take the fine- if the registrar feels strongly enough to chase us.... We are only marrying so we can access each others pensions so romantic it is not a sign that we have suddenly become more committed to each other. Just intensely dislike the implication that I should feel bad for not getting married before having children when I don't regret it at all. [awkward cow emoticon]