Genealogy Forum UK

Got a birth certificate today and in the margin it says

Re-registered under the legitimacy act 1926


After a bit of reading, does that mean that the person the mother married is the father of this child?
There is no father listed on the Birth Certificate...

Thanks

Fatman wrote:Got a birth certificate today and in the margin it says

Re-registered under the legitimacy act 1926


After a bit of reading, does that mean that the person the mother married is the father of this child?
There is no father listed on the Birth Certificate...

Thanks

I think it was put into place so that a child who was born to a woman and the women then married the father of the child could benefit from the father's estate on his death. So yes - it does legitimise the child

There is another birth certificate with the child's real date of birth on it.

Look at the indexes for the person using the mother surname.

On the actual index page itself there will be a hand written reference to the "legitamised" index entry.

There is never a "backward" reference that allows you to find the first certificate from the second.

You can order both certificates.

It means that a man has signed a declaration making himself the legal father.

Both parents had to go into the registration office and sign together.

They did not have to be married or de-facto.

The second certificate gave the child legal status in terms of probate and other inheritance laws, such as who owns military medals etc.

My mother's first certificate is five years earlier than her second.

So if you relied on the second certificate for her date of birth you would be five years out.

I currently have the first certificate. As there is no fathers name

How Do I go bout getting the second? Hopefully with a fathers name?

Look at the tindex page for the one you have and it will refer to the index for the other one.