Why is her birth registration missing?

Yes, I appreciate that. I generally use FreeBMD to find the entry - using the more flexible search parameters, especially the wider date range - then go to GRO to see the maiden name (for births pre 1911) or age (for deaths pre 1866).

 

We seem to have four children with no record in the BMD/GRO index, but all have a christening entry in Familysearch.

Namely Alexander, Frank, Clara & Evelyn

We should try to eliminate failure to send returns into the GRO during the period 1863-1866 while the family was at Hatfield Peverel. Maybe someone who has access to the Essex Record Office's Seax catalogue run a check on a few other none Luard entries and see if they are in the BMD/GRO index? I don’t want to spend £10 to gain access! This may not solve Evelyn’s lack of entry, but would remove those three children from the puzzle. The birthdays of all four that were used in later life are all within 4-5 weeks of their christening dates so appear to be ‘correct’

 

I've checked, and found no burial for an Almond during the few months before Alice's baptism date.

You said we should look at the gaps between the births of the Luard children, Peter. Certainly some of them were born very close together for that period. Usually you would expect a gap of around two years between births, but in this family there are several gaps of scarcely a year, and then longer gaps than two years. Could the family have adopted those children for whom the birth registrations have proved elusive? Perhaps even adopted children of relatives?

 

I had the same thought and found a public tree (owner sue almond) with Alice(twin) Almond in it, parents James Almond and Emma Coppen. Her date of birth is given as 8 Aug 1872, so does not match Kate Evelyn Luard's birthdate. But the DoB could be wrong as there are lots of duplications in this tree.

 

Agreed Clara seemed to have children yearly, but in 1881 census Clara & daughter Rose visit her sister Charlotte. In 1881 census Charlotte's five children are aged 6,7,9,11,12,14,19,20, so perhaps it ran in the Bramston family.

 

The birth notice for the Luard daughter was in the Essex Standard on 5th July 1872 but it does not give a name.



On looking for birth notices I also came across this in The Essex Herald January 5th 1875


Do you think that the Rev Bixby just did not get round to registering some of the births.
It appears that it only became compulsary to register in 1875.
I had assumed that it was compulsary from the start of Civil registration.

 

I think we can discount any adoptions for the four children who have missing ONS/GRO entries as their births with, dates that agree with later records, are all listed in the local papers having done a search in FMP.

 

Well Charlotte wasn't a Bramston as these children all have mother's maiden name Du Cane. Their father William G Luard was (I think) Rev. Bixby Luard's brother (making Clara his sister-in-law and Rose his niece as stated on the census). However, looking at the records for this family, there is again a gap in the birth registrations, as the births of the 14- and 12-year old daughters (Edith and Amy) don't appear to have been registered. Again they were born in Witham, around the same time (mid-late 1860s) as the 3 'unregistered' children of Rev. Luard (excluding Kate as she was later).

This makes me think there must have been a problem with the records, maybe a failure of registrars in Witham in that period to send them to the GRO, as others have mentioned. In the 1881 census, William G Luard is listed as a Vice Admiral, Companion of the Bath and Magistrate. You can't get more respectable than that, and it is hard to imagine someone in his position failing to register two of his children.

 

I agree, the newspaper reports coupled with the timings of baptisms that others have reported make adoption seem unlikely.

It seems Bixby and William's father was also a magistrate, and William had a distinguished naval career. So I think non-registration of the children's births by their parents is highly unlikely. I think some failure in the system of transferring the local registration records to the central register may be the culprit.

 

Thurrock is the current register office for Aveley.
Is there any way, apart from ordering a certificate, to see if they have the birth registration?
They do not seem to have an online search facility for the era we require.
That would show if it was a problem with records going missing between the register office and the GRO.

 

Sorry, senior moment Charlotte not Bramston.

 

And as it happens, my husband's great-grandfather and great-granduncle were born in Witham in the late 1860s and both of their births appear in the GRO and FreeBMD records. Their father was a policeman, so again would be expected to abide by the rules.