Midwives

[patk]

My grandmother had three children. The first was born at home in 1914, but the other two, born in 1920 and 1926 respectively, took place at 2 different private homes despite the fact the family was still resident at the original 1914 address.

I'm puzzled why the births took place somewhere other than the family home or a medical facility of some sort. Could they have been the homes of midwives? Any information on the likelihood of this possibility would be welcome.

[Jan1954]

Have you fully checked out the addresses of the 1920 and 1926 births? Who was living there?

I was born in a private nursing home (okay.... not as far back as the 1920s ) but even then, the building was listed as an address on my birth certificate, rather than as a nursing home. However, by rummaging in the directories of the day, it is also listed as a nursing home.

[Peter Goodey]

the building was listed as an address on my birth certificate

and, as is so often mentioned here, births at workhouse infirmaries and poor law institutions in particular were routinely disguised by being shown as standard street addresses.

In other words, something that looks like a private residential address may not be!

[patk]

Have you fully checked out the addresses of the 1920 and 1926 births? Who was living there?

I was born in a private nursing home (okay.... not as far back as the 1920s ) but even then, the building was listed as an address on my birth certificate, rather than as a nursing home. However, by rummaging in the directories of the day, it is also listed as a nursing home.

The addresses in question were, respectively, 6 Moorfield Road, Cowley [i.e. Uxbridge], Middlesex & 36 Glebe Road, Hayes, Middx. Both appear today to be private dwellings, and pretty much the same as the surrounding homes. Unfortunately, I have no access to Kelly or Post Office directories to determine what they were in 1920 & 1926. Oddly, the family home at the time was not in Middlesex at all but in Iver, Buckinghamshire.