Having a mental block!

[Carla]

Please can someone give me some advice before i pop. Not sure if i am posting this in the right area but i am happy for it to be moved if not...

The 1911 census showed up some new information for family researchers which i found interesting. There is a section which states 'Children born alive to present marriage' with three sub headings -
Total children born alive
Children still living
Children who have died

In 1901 my grandfather Joseph Charles Martin was the only child shown on the census, being born in 1898.
By 1911 my g grandparents David Joseph and Emily Elizabeth Martin had 6 children alive. Total children born alive stated 7 and children who had died stated 1. So between the 1901 census and 1911 census a child had died. I don't believe a child was born before my grandfather as he was born 3 months after the marriage!

I asked all my living family members, particularly my aunt who has been a great source of information, but no-one knew about the child who had died. I know i am missing a really simple way of finding out, but please will someone explain the easiest way to find the birth of this child. I have no name. I have no date of birth. I have no death details. I do know the area they lived in during those years so can narrow it down, but i have looked at so much information that i am now boggled. I know i need to go back to basics and work logically. Surely there must be some way of finding out?

 

[Emma]

Please can someone give me some advice before i pop. Not sure if i am posting this in the right area but i am happy for it to be moved if not...

I have no date of birth. I have no death details. I do know the area they lived in during those years so can narrow it down, but i have looked at so much information that i am now boggled. I know i need to go back to basics and work logically. Surely there must be some way of finding out?

Quite a few children in that 10 year gap! As to a date of birth is there a particular space in the ages of the children listed that might give a clue as to the year the missing child was born?

 

[peter]

Carla, I think you may have assumed that the child who died in infancy was born after the 1901 Census, but surely it's quite feasible that your great-grandparents had a second child before the 1901 Census? After all, based on the facts you've provided there seems to have been a child born every 2 years, yet there are 3 years between 1898 and 1901.

If the missing child was born before 1901 then he or she ought to be quite easy to find so long as your ancestors were living at the same address (or at least in the same registration district) in 1901 as in 1898. All you need to do is compile a list of Martin children who died in infancy between 1898/9 and the 2nd quarter of 1901 - one of them will be your relative.

If my hunch is wrong then simply writing down the quarters in which the later 5 births were registered should reveal a gap - and that's when the missing child was born. If that doesn't work then the missing child must have been a twin, in which case this will be apparent when you look up the other 5 in the birth indexes.

 

[Emma]

Good point Peter - I didn't think about the 1898-1901 gap.

 

[Carla]

This will take me some time....thank you for the advice. A child was born pretty much every two years but there is a gap between 1907 and 1911 which is larger. I have looked in the past and it is time consuming but i am determined to find this child, even if i go mad hunting, ha ha. Thanks again

 

[Bee]

Carla, have you tried FreeBMD? There you can enter a surname, registration area, a date period and birth/death search at the same time. You might be able to eliminate some or find some matches.

 

[Carla]

Funny enough Bee i did try FreeBMD last night. I have tried everyone's suggestions but still cant find a birth registered to David and Emily for a child that died. I have tried to look at the ages of children who were born and died in the time span but would the birth have been registered if a baby was stillborn? I also wondered what information the households were given to fill in a census? For instance David and Emily may have felt they had a child who died but is that a distortion of information if the birth was never registered?
And.....am i complicating things by all my musings here?

 

[Katie Bee]

Carla, have you tried FreeBMD? There you can enter a surname, registration area, a date period and birth/death search at the same time. You might be able to eliminate some or find some matches.

You can also enter the age at death eg. 0 this may reduce the number of entries along with the registration district.

 

[Heilan Lass]

I have tried to look at the ages of children who were born and died in the time span but would the birth have been registered if a baby was stillborn?

Carla - my father, who ended up being an only child, had a sibling who was still born sometime between 1913 and 1920. It appears that the birth was never registered as I haven't had any success finding any details either, so at a guess still births in that era weren't considered appropriate/necessary to record on a census.

 

[Bee]

Have you tried looking for the birth after the latest possible date of death? I found one that way surprisingly. They obviously realised they hadn't registered the birth having been upset at the death. The record was in the quarter following the death.

 

[peter]

Have you tried looking for the birth after the latest possible date of death? I found one that way surprisingly. They obviously realised they hadn't registered the birth having been upset at the death. The record was in the quarter following the death.

Something else to bear in mind is that you have 42 days to register a birth, but only 7 to register a death. You'd expect both to be registered at the same time, but the person registering the death might not have been aware that the birth hadn't been registered, and depending on who it was, they might not have been entitled to register the birth.

 

[Carla]

Well i have spent my Easter Sunday afternoon searching through the FreeBMD site, Ancestry.co.uk and Familysearch when i probably should have been sleeping off my huge lunch! I have looked at births and i have looked at deaths. The problem is that the London transcripts on line showing parents only go up to 1906. After that you can really only look by area. I have found a few that could be my missing child but i will only be able to tell by sending away for the certificates and that will add up in cost. Not only that, but i will end up with certificates i don't need, no doubt? Sadly i now think my only option will be to visit London and look up the records.......but thank you for your advice everyone.