Help - no record of a birth - any ideas?

[RogerTheDodger]

I will try and be brief.

Recently whilst trawling the GRO death indexes I came across an unexpected entry. It was in the surname I was looking for and registered in the district I was looking at but related to someone of whose existance I knew nothing of.

The index listed the age of the deceased as 2 so I started to look back to the appropriate birth indexes but found no corresponding birth entry. I eventually went back 10 years but still nothing. So I ordered the death certificate which has not answered the main question I would like answered which is who was her mother.

The death is registered in 1946.
She is named (forename and surname) and her age is quoted as 2 years.
It states she died in a hospital.
It states she was of "No fixed abode" and the daughter of "A N Other" (A N Other is known to me i.e. I know who he is)
The death was registerd by the hospital Matron.

The hospital no longer exists and I have been told by the local council archive they have no admission records for the hospital despite the TNA saying they have so no luck there.

I am planning to visit the local archive sometime in the future not specifically for this but it can be added to the list if things to look up but what can I look up?
Will the local archive have different birth records to the GRO? i.e local records only that will be less daunting to go through than the GRO whole of the UK lists.
The people most directly linked with the child are all dead but I still don't want to ask anyone in the family because I don't know if I will be causing any upset or like me they may no nothing anyway.

Hope this make some sense and any suggestions will be greatfully received.

Roger

[pipsqueak]

If you know the age of the child even within a year, it wouldn't take long to go through the index, given that you know the child's name.

Is it possible that this child was born out of wedlock and given up to the care of the man's family and kept from the mother's?

Is it possible that the child wasn't even registered in order to keep it a secret. Another possibility is that the child was mentally or physically handicapped and kept a secret. In those days people would often have a child with severe deformities "put away".

I don't know that I have any help to offer, just sharing some thoughts on this potentially sensitive subject. If you'd like another pair of eyes to scan through the index, PM me the details and I'll be glad to help.

[Pam Downes]

A couple more thoughts.
Not very helpful - but if the child was born out of wedlock could her birth have been registered in the mother's name? For explanations why -
https://www.dixons.clara.co.uk/Certif...irths.htm#COL4
Slightly more helpful, any possibility of the death/funeral being reported in the local newspaper?
Does the 'no fixed abode' mean that the child was perhaps from a fairground or Romany background?
Pam

[Pam Downes]

Roger,
'Welcome to the forum' seems a little inappropriate with such a sensitive query for your first post, but hopefully you'll have other queries in which we can use and though you might find more useful.
Pam

[websterbfc]

I wondered if no fixed abode was used if the child had remained in the hospital all its life and therefor had no actual address...what do you think?

I take it you have looked up the record on A2A to find out if anyone else holds the records other than who you think does? if not it is worth a try as sometimes you find that there is another copy of the records held somewhere quite unexpected

good luck and i hope you find what you are looking for

[RogerTheDodger]

Thank you for your thoughts on this. I appreciate you taking the time to reply, the reasons suggested make sense to me and I will carry on digging.

There are times when I wish I hadn't casually followed up an item on the BBC News website a several years ago about the 1901 Census being made available on the web. Before that day I lived in blissful ignorance.

Only joking. Thanks again.

Roger

[Geoffers]

The index listed the age of the deceased as 2 so I started to look back to the appropriate birth indexes but found no corresponding birth entry..............It states she was of "No fixed abode" and the daughter of "A N Other"

Some thoughts, which you may have considered......

Was the birth registered late? With the upheaval in the war, this is a possibility - or perhaps in a place not expected as a result of evacuation as a result of the V1/V2 threat? Try military records of birth in case the father was in the armed services - the GRO army birth index is separate to the main GRO index.

Was the child a foundling who was adopted by the person recorded as the father?

In case the spelling of the name could be mistaken, have you tried variant spellings?

[bumblebee]

Also could She have been registered as 'Female' + Surname.

Bumblebee