Genealogy Chat

There is a lady who runs a Stillbirth index (and a multiple birth index). We are searching for info on stillborn twins around 1920 and my sister wrote to her to see if she had any info. I am posting below some excerpts from her reply which several people may find interesting. Maz. XX

Thank you Maz.

My gt grandmother had quads in 1919.
Two great aunts & a great uncle survived the birth, the fourth baby was stillborn.
(one of my great aunts is still alive )
no-one ever knew the sex of the baby who died.
It would be amazing to find out after so long.

Elaine x

Updated 4 Sept 2007

We now think the baby was lost earlier during the prgnancy rather than during the birth.

Hi Tracey! She hasn't found them so far, but we have now sent more details. She is constantly researching newspapers at the British Library Newspaper thingy at Colindale, so keeps any unsolved queries on file. Unfortunately ours is very vague - we don't know the exact year even - and its definitely before the Act of 1926 - and its a common name. All this adds up to no hope of finding it on 1837/GRO indexes, and definitely not in the stillbirth register. I would definitely give her a try - for the cost of 2 stamps (1 out, 1 back!) what have you got to lose!! Good luck. Maz. XX

nudge

Found it! NUDGE SUE G

Hiya All, May I just add that back in 1967 I gave birth to twins both were live births and I only carried them for five and half months.One lived 17 mins the other 13 hours.They were both burried in a plot of ground in the cemetery(I have the plot number)without us attending, as I was still in hospital, but the condition was that if ever this ground was needed then another person would go on top of them.We were never issued a birth cert for either child and the one that lived the longest we had Christened,But as he lived over 12 hours I was allowed all the maternity grants etc that I would have received had he lived.Now I am thinking was this strange not to have been issued a birth/death certs?.Apart from the one christening cert the only other documentation I have that I ever had twins was the mention of both children by name on the letter from the undertaker Lynn

gosh!!! lynn what a sad story i would have thought that your twins would have needed to been registered,but alas no i take it you did not need birth certs either then????

I JUST WANTED TO SAY TO MAZ THANKS FOR THE INFO ON STILLBIRTHS IT WAS VERY INTERESTING THANKS AGAIN. ISABEL

Lynne, What a heartbreaking tale. I am so sorry. It does raise a number of questions though. Presumably, no birth or death certs were issued even though you had the second one christened. I just find it all very wierd. If they did that in 1967 it makes you wonder what they did back in the 1800's. Jill

Thankyou Isabel & Jill for reply to my wee posting on Maz's Thread but I must add that although at the time loosing these babies seemed the end of our world we went on to have three wonderful children who have given us five also wonderful grandchildren.I do still at times think of the twins but time, and my family together have been a great healer Lynn

Thank you for sharing this Maz, very interesting. My mother in law is a twin, her brother was stillborn, in Dec 1927. Would it be worth me contacting this lady? I'm not sure what to ask exactly. I mean, is this more info than others have got anyway, were these babies given names do you know? My MIL knows no more than it was a boy. No birth or death is registered on 1837, I've checked. I've answered my own question really, I could drop her a line and ask if there is a record of him at least, what do you think? Or maybe she just deals with pre-1927 stillbirths.

Hi I find all of this so sad as these still born infants are as important as the living. Its just a shame that theres not more documents kept on stillbirth. My mother was 1 of 6 children. My nan's 1st child was a still born male. The only reason i knew anything about him, was the fact my mother was told as a child by my nan. One day going through some paper work (as you do). I found a letter which was from a funeral director dated 1936. I then looked in the yellow pages and i found it was still at the same address. I quickly rang them and they informed me that in the 50`s they had a fire. However she would have a look. She rang about an hour later and told me his name and where his body was placed. I then continued with the search and found out he was placed with another 6 people and there was no head stone . Then doing more research i found out that when my nan was 7 months gone with her 5th child she fell down stairs. Which started her labour off. My mum came home from school as was told to stay in the kitchen with her other siblings, while my nan was in her bedroom with lots of other adults. It turned out that my auntie was a twin and the other child which was a boy had died. The reason why there were so many adults in the bedroom was that my auntie and her brother were joined at the hip(so to speak). My auntie was the smaller of the two had nearly died. My mum remembers looking into the bedroom and seeing a lady wrapping the other child up in a blanket. That was the last my mum see of her brother. We dont know what ever happened to him, and no one ever spoke about him. This was in the mid 1940's . I would like to think that maybe there is a grave somewhere. The only proof that we have to say that he was ever here, are my auntie's scars! Take care Sarah

Samantha - I would certainly give her a try - she has records right through that she has found at the Colindale newspaper library, so you never know. Maz. XX

I have nudged my thread re the Times site as there were stillbirths in the births section and may be some use to all of you looking KIM

hi maz i was looking at a burial plot book today at leeds university for my grandad and grandmas deaths[they adopted my mum] they are buried in leeds general cemetery [woodhouse cemetery leeds],in the burial plot book there were loads of stillborn babies buried in graves in this cemetery all had plot numbers,some were buried in their own graves but a lot of them were buried in communal graves which could hold up to nine(9) babies most of them were born at leeds maternity hospital between 1930 and 1940.must say that leeds university sent letters to all relatives back in the 60's for permission to move the graves and headstones because they wanted to build on the site to extend the university.it was heartbreaking to read the babies names and how old they had been,some of the babies had died at anything up to a month old,some had names others were just called baby whatever the surname was.just thought i would put this info on site for people who maybe have rellies that was buried in that cemetery.its a bit of a devil when a building comes before the bodies of our loved ones sue

hi helen i know what a stillborn is because i had one myself,i was just making the point that stillborns were buried with other babies that died round about the same day in the book that i was looking at. sue

Thank's for that Maz i will certainly be in touch, my grandma had a stillbirth and he was taken she never did know where he was buried. Her mother also told her back in the 1800's if they had a stillbirth and there was no midwife presant they used to bury them in there own back yard's to save the cost's as they did'nt have the money. I have a certificate stating my little girl's birthdate and place of death, not quite the same as a birth certificate, but somthing to treasure. Shan

I have found this a really interesting thread. Regarding this lady who keeps the details, is it worth actually sending her details, I mean, if we have had this experience and would like our child to be recorded with her so that they do become written down in history somewhere? I think times have changed very much and that we have come a long way (in general) with this. Back in 1986, I was given a polaroid of my baby boy, they made sure I took it with me. Had it been 6 months earlier, they probably wouldn't have done this. I think the women who formed the local SANDS group would go into the hospital and talk with midwives and suggest things that would have been helpful. Now at our hospital, they have a special room where the parents can be and have their child with them and basically take their time in saying goodbye. Her they can bath, dress the baby, have othe family members in, take as many photos as they wish. My boy is buried at a special children's plot at Brookwood cemetary. My dad arranged all this and didn't actually tell me, he just rang me to say he had been laid to rest. I think he did it because he thought it would be too distressing for me to go, but I really felt that it was taken away from me. I should have been there.

Hi, This is all very interesting....as I can't say that I have thought about it before. I haven't come across any stillbirths in my researching of f/tree but certainly the men.....married a couple of times...and the wives died quite young after having quite a few children. No doubt they were totally worn out or it wouldn't have been uncommon to have died in childbirth. It is good that there is a lady keeping records on stillbirths. I hope the ladies find the info they are looking for. Victoria

Lyn & Barbara, thank you for sharing your very sad experiences, they brought tears to my eyes. Lyn You could start here Liverpool Cemeteries Office Allerton Lodge Woolton Road Liverpool L19 5NF Tel 0151 233 3004 See what they can tell you Regards Sam