Family Historian User Group

I have just read about Family Law
It appears that since 1976 if a child is born before the parents married it has to be re-registered even if the father of the child is on the birth certificate.
This would mean the FH might have to have two birth facts for the child,
See http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/whats-on ... nts-400876
Sorry this is full of adverts
Shall we all just ignore the re register?

Victor

Victor,
There will still only be one birth fact, because the child was only born once. What might change is that there will be more than one source for the birth: one with the original registration details and the other with the revised details. Assuming that the named father and the date of birth are the same, no other data in FH need change. The purpose of the law is to give the child certain rights regarding inheritance. You can add a note to the birth event explaining the reason for two registrations.

Victor,

You wouldn't need another Birth Fact, because the key details of the birth should be the substantially the same, apart from the 'description' of the Mother (Name and Maiden Name) and the Date of (re-)Registration. All that would be needed is an additional Source/Citation. However, it may be appropriate to add some additional facts, e.g. a possible change of surname for the child and any additional 'facts' recorded such as later address.

Mervyn

Oops Lorna beat me to it!

May be the second registration is not the birth but it will indicate the parents have registered the child after marriage and can confirm the father is the actual father.
We do have instances when no one knows who the father is after the mother has married. Like my grandfather. His mother's husband is not his father. In this case I have listed him on the tree as father unknown.

I do think these two separate facts need to be recorded. Once recorded the child can then have the father as listed

Victor

Strictly speaking Birth and Birth Registration are two different facts and in the early days of registration could be months (or even a year or more) apart. They are often in different places as well - the actual place of birth, and the registration district. I have several instances of a child being born before a census and not registered until some time after a census, so dating a birth registration fact as a birth fact puts it after the census date!

I've never worked out an acceptable (to me) way of handling this in FH. Victor's situation would seem to demand a second Birth Registration fact.

You could always use the valid before date format and use the registration date as the date you use in the date format so bef 04 Sep 2017 if you are unsure of the actual birth date.

This scenario has been discussed before. The solution depends on user preferences.
However, it hinges on the distinction between Facts and Documents.

Let us consider a few examples.

Prior to the UK 1837 Registrations, the main evidence for Birth Facts were Baptism Documents.
The Baptism Document may identify the Date of Birth as well as Date of Baptism.
So that is recorded by both a Birth Event Fact and a Baptism Event Fact each with a Source Citation for the Baptism Document.

Some Death Certificates provide the Date of Birth as well as Date of Death.
So that similarly is recorded by both a Birth Event Fact and a Death Event Fact each with a Source Citation for the Death Certificate.

The Birth Certificate, or multiple Birth Certificates in some cases, identify the Date of Birth.
The Birth Event Fact has a Source Citation for each Birth Certificate.
Whether you also wish to record a Registration Event Fact for each Birth Certificate is a personal choice.

In all the above examples the Date of each Document is different from the Date of Birth.
The only consideration is how contemporary one is with respect to the other.
A Baptism Document or Birth Certificate is usually contemporary with the Date of Birth so the Citation Assessment would be Primary evidence.
A Death Certificate is NOT usually contemporary with the Date of Birth so the Citation Assessment would be Secondary evidence or perhaps Questionable.
In each case the Citation Entry Date and the Date recorded in the Source Document indicates how contemporary it is with the associated Fact.