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Hi I am trying to trace the birth and death of my brother born in Brighton in the middle 1950's but I do not know what year exactly. My mother and father who have both passed away said that he was born by forceps but had brain damage and died a couple of days later. I cannot find any records at all. Does anyone know if records were kept of these babies and if so where i will be able to find them.
I do not wish to name him here so please PM me if you may be able to help.
Many thanks.

karen

Yes.............if a child takes even one independent breath...there should be birth and death records.

You can PM me...........

If he wasnt a stillborn then his birth and death should be recorded.

Just to say I've had no luck.....perhaps someone else would be kind enough to offer their services.

Was he born whilst your parents were married or could he have been born and registered under your mother's maiden name?

If you want to send the details I will have a look.

Kath. x

My parents were born in 1951 and he was born after their marriage as I have a letter of sympathy which indicates only a couple of years previous to 1958 when I was born

Thanks for the message Karen.

Unfortunately I can only find your birth reference. Have tried with all three surnames and found nothing.

Kath. x

Have you checked with the GRO at Southport just in case he was stillborn as these records are not open to the public but if your parents are both deceased then you would be able to have access to the stillbirth record.

Kath. x

If the hospital he was born at was in another registration area would this explain why you can't find him. It's just that my kids were born whilst I lived within Birmingham area but are registered in Solihull because they were born in Solihull Hospital.

Also, and no suggestion towards your parents but hospitals and others had ideas about the best thing to do for the parents when a baby was born with disability or deformity etc. Attitudes in the 50's were horrendous and that followed into the 60s too and parents were encouraged to let the authorities take such children because they were told the child would be better off in an institution. Parents were then expected to 'forget' the child. It may be that your parents were 'encouraged' by the doctors if your brothe was so poorly and died quickly to pretend nothing had ever happened and to move on with their lives. Of course they couldn't do that and would never forget but f the hospital was supposed to 'take care of everything', then it's possible that the birth and death was never registered. This could be human error or an attempt to hide incompetence during the birth. Sad but a sad truth about our society.

I hope you find him.

Jill

Jill, thank you, I have often wondered if this is the case because when I had a cesaerean with my first born I remember my mother saying that the doctors should have given her one too and not used forceps. I wish I had asked her more before she died but I just couldn't bring myself to hurt her.
I will do as kathleen above suggested (thanks Kathleen) just in case he was registered as still born but I do know she said he lived for \ couple of days. I may write to the hospital in question as well to see if they can throw light on it too. Thanks everyone for your help
Karen

It would not be on the GRO records you have to Phone Southport,and they are very fussy about giving these records out.Usually to parents only.

Ellen

If you are sure which area he should be registered in, you could phone their register office and ask if they can check for his birth / death.

It may be that the information got missed off the master GRO index.

Some Register office staff are really helpful.
I phoned an office in Wales this week hunting for a DAVIES death. Within an hour they phoned to say that they'd found it.

Gwyn

Hi ya hate to say this but most babies that died close to birth . Where put I'n with other babies not unless ur parents had a proper burial for your brother . But my advice would be to get I'n touch with the cemetery or parish ad to where he is buried . I no cause I had to do it with my brothet

I doubt you will get anywhere with the hospital somehow. The powers that be tell us we live in a free society but I believe GB is one of the most secretive societies you will find.

I wonder if your parents had the opportunity to get the child baptised. It might be worth seeing if you local churches have anything.

If you ring the local Registrar you could try asking if there were births and deaths registered for any children who were not named. There must surely be or have been this facility to allow for deceased abandoned babies who obviously were unidentifiable.

I'd like to know how you get on.

Jill

Thank you to everyone who has helped on this for me. I have contacted the GRO and they are sending me a form to complete. Jillian I have been to the county records office and looked for a baptism but there is not record of one. I have checked the births records there too and tomorrow I am going back there as they have ordered in the death registers too. So i may have some luck there.

Karen

Good luck for tomorrow. I hope that you will be back on here in the evening to say you have found him.

Jill