Genealogy Chat

Hi All, Bit late coming in here - but - time on a birth cert does not mean it's *definitely* twins. It's a good indication, but some registrars noted the time as a matter of course. All my Durham births in one district, have times noted on them, but none of them were twins. The easiest way to check, is the look at the rest of the entries in that quarter for that surname. If there is another child registered with the same or consecutive page numbers, this also a good indication of twins. But if it's a popular surname in that region, could just be coincidence. Debbie

Dea Steady on!! Well done. I have two sets of male twins in my tree, but sadly they all died in infancy. nell

Thanks Nell, Found them !! GOSH! - My first Twins! - I'm so excited you would think I had given birth to them myself !! Dea x

From the excellent http://home.clara.net/dixons/Certificates/indexbd.htm 'If there is a time against the date of birth then there was more than one child born alive at the birth. If however a mother had twins, one liveborn and one stillborn, then the live born twin will not have a time against the birth. Until 1926 there were no registrations at all of a still born child. Having said that, again the early registrations are not consistent. The registrar in the Eton district did not put the times of births of twins in the registers at all until 1845 while the one in Stoke-on-Trent put times against all the registrations up until about 1850. It is possible to check for twins by looking for identical or consecutive GRO references in the indexes.'

In England and Walse a time on the birth certificate tends to be an indication of a multiple birth (twins, triplets.....) but occationally it's just the registra being nosey or particular. You could ckeak on FreeBMD for anyothers with the same surname on the page that the certificate you have is listed on. In Scotland times are recorded for everyone regardless.

Thanks both, This is England - 1846 - I take it I can be definite in my assumption that this was a multiple birth. Deax

I've only got times of birth on certificates where the person has been a twin. However, I believe that in Scotland the time of birth is added as a matter of course.

The only time on a birth certificate is when it is twins to see who is the oldest. Fern.

Am I right in saying that if the time of birth is on the birth certificate - It has to have been twins (or more than one baby ) ?? Dea x

see below: