General Chat

My grandmother had twin daughters, one died at about 2 years old, the other survived.

Her eldest son had twin daughters, both survived.

I have not yet found any twins in any of the rest of the family or their descendants. Although I will admit that I thought about it when I was pregnant! :-D

Annie, there are lots of twins in Mum's and Dad's lines,

Two of my cousins on both sides have twins and, so far, two of their children have twins. Way back (before my time), I found one set of triplets on Dad's side.

Neither I nor my children have had twins .... but I've warned my grandchildren. :-0

We have twins in the family tree, my husband's great aunt and uncle, born just before and just after midnight so different birthdays. If this happens on December 31st and January 1st they will obviously be born in different years. Probably rare but something to remember. Anything can happen in this game!

Annie

I did once come across a birth certificate in England that had the time of birth written on it.

There was never any suggestion that the child was a twin, and no registration for a twin has been found.

There could be one of 2 explanations that I can see ............ there was a stillbirth twin, and those were not recorded back then, and even now would be recorded in a separate register not in the main register.

Secondly, the Registrar had just decided to be super-efficient and recorded times for all births.

Just out of interest, I looked up the birth registration for the Walton sextuplets born in 1983.
The index shows their births spread over 4 separate pages.

They can share the same ref number

There were usually six births recorded on one page and usually totally different families

Information on Scottish Birth Certificates from 1855 onwards.


Information Recorded in the Registers
Most records include:

name and surname of the child
where born
date and time of birth
sex
name, surname and occupation of father
name and maiden surname of mother
date and place of the parents' marriage
signature, address (if not the place of birth) and relation of informant
signature of registrar.
For 1855 only information about the parents’ other children (living or dead) and the ages and birthplaces of both parents was included.

Time of Birth

Time of birth is recorded on all Scottish entries. English, Welsh and Irish records only include time of birth for twins or multiple births. In this example from the registration district of Wilton the registrar has written twin in the left-hand margin of the page against the first two entries but all three entries show the time of birth. The B stands for burgh. Other entries in this register volume have L for the landward or rural part of the district.

Use of the Term Illegitimate

The use of the term “illegitimate” in column one of the birth and death registers was discontinued after 1918. The Registrar General for Scotland issued guidance to registrars that it should no longer be used for new entries. For pre-1919 records an official extract (or certificate) of a birth or death entry that contained the term had to be typed and “illegitimate” omitted. It remains in the register entry which can be viewed as a digital image if the record is over 100 years old.

Transcribed Entries

If there are two entries for a birth it usually means that the child was born in a registration district that was different to the one where its parents usually lived. In these cases the birth was registered in the district where the child was born. The registrar then had to send a copy of the entry to the registrar in the district of the parents’ usual residence within eight days. The details were then transcribed into that register. The Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Scotland) (Amendment) Act 1934 dispensed with these transcript entries.

If you order an official extract (or birth certificate) it will be from the original register entry, that is, the one recorded in the registration district where the child was born.

Vaccination

Registrars issued notices ‘of the requirement of vaccination’ to each informant of a birth. The child had to be vaccinated within six months by a registered medical practitioner. Registrars kept a “vaccination” birth register to record if a child was successfully vaccinated, died before vaccination or was insusceptible (unable to be vaccinated). They also kept a separate register of postponed vaccinations and a list of defaulters.

Section 26(5) of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1947 provided that vaccination of children should no longer be compulsory on or after 5 July 1948. Registrars were instructed by the Registrar General not to record details from vaccination certificates lodged after that date unless the child was born and registered before 5 July 1948.

Scottish death certificates (judging by that of my 2nd Great-grandmother) have a wealth of information on them and I have heard similar about their birth certificates so I think Gwyn's belief is correct.

Gwyn, you can thank that person in the local record office because no such information came from the GRO when I bought my Great-grandfather's birth certificate. Had I not known he was a twin I would have had to guess that that was the reason for the time being on his BC, otherwise I may have thought that some registrars must have added the time detail.

When I began family research, the first two certificates I bought were from the local registry office and the lady was very helpful when I 'picked her brains'. It's always the same isn't it? Some people go above and beyond and others perform their perfunctory tasks and no more.

Right, having just re read your last comment, I think I see what you are saying.

If you search on freebmd for a birth, then click on the blue number at the end of the required entry on the index, you will probably see several names, all with the same registration number.
When a child is registered, the information is collated in volumes (first number shown on index ) and then on separate pages ( second number on index )
Many entries will be written on the same page and when that is full, a new page will be started. These names could be multiple births, but most names on the same page will have absolutely no link to other entries on that page.

I sent for the birth certificate of a distant relative and that came back with a time on it, but the local record office also enclosed a slip of paper saying ... 'NB, Daniel was a twin.'.. which I had suspected anyway, but saved me buying a non essential certificate for his twin brother.

I believe that Scottish birth certificates have time added regardless of whether or not the child is a twin.

The time of birth should always be on a certificate for a twin ....... it can be very important in determining which was the elder one for inheritance reasons.

The time of birth is on my great-grandfather's birth certificate and he was a twin.

I believe that the times of birth are included on Twins birth certificates.

The one i was searching is living, it's abit of a sensitive subject so not comfortable in talking to him about it..
The second one came up whilst i was searching,totally different name for birth parent and surname, it was purely because they both were born at the same time in the same hospital but share the same registration numbers...

Are these living people?
If not, perhaps you would like to give details about what you have found.

If a child was born to unmarried parents, but the father was named on the certificate, the child might be listed in the GRO index under both surnames and have identical numbers, but if you bought both certificates in this case, they would be identical.

Thank you Florence, i think that's going to be the way forward

Thank you

Personally i would order both certificates and the mystery would be explained!

Florence in the hebrides

Thank you...hmmm gets confusing..

If there were two births with totally different names but same registration numbers how would that work??

I found out my grandad had 3 other brothers. When I looked at one of the births it was registered in the same q so I ordered the certs and yes realised then the page nos were identical and indeed they were twins! But it was better to order the certs to make sure as Gwyn says.

florence in the hebrides

Quite likely, although they could have consecutive numbers if one happens to be the last name entered on a page and the sibling is the first name on the next page.

Beware though, things are not always what they seem.
A friend found what she thought were twins registered, but they were in fact cousins.
They were the children of 2 brothers who had married 2 sisters.