Birth Certificate extracted from Birth Registers

By Anonymous on Sun, 09/13/2015 - 13:15

Forums

I inherited a Certificate of Birth for my great grandfather. He was born in 1892, and it appears he needed a birth certificate for some reason and so ordered this document in 1912.  The information was extracted from the original Birth Registers of the Parish.  I'm trying to figure out what a proper citation for this document would look like.  I have both the original blue paper certificate, and I've also digitally scanned the document (because it's very delicate and falling apart).  I probably would want to cite the actual certificate, not the digital image of the certificate. 

I'm looking at the different QuickCheck models, and I'm just getting more confused as to how exactly I should create the citation.  I don't know how the birth registers, from which his record was extracted, are organized, or where they are currently located.

I'm not sure if I should concentrate on the original birth registers that it was extracted from or just a citation of the actual certificate.

Any help would be appreciated.  I've included an image of the certificate.

 

Submitted bydpslageron Sun, 09/13/2015 - 14:31

I've tried to upload the image several times, but cannot see it anywhere.  Here is a link to my ancestry.com account for that document.  Note sure if this will work, but hopefully it will help.

http://mv.ancestry.com/viewer/cd459303-4bb8-42ef-93b2-fe88c27e4b61/3571940/-1716785843?_phsrc=DLM7&usePUBJs=true

 

David,

Given that this is a record passed down in your family, which you cannot replicate by writing off to a government agency named on the record, EE would cite it as a privately held family artifact, following 3.24-3.25. We would also copy the first three lines of the document ("National Insurance Act, 1911: Certificate of Birth ... Lanark") as the title of the artifact.  The "some reason" you referenced in your first message, as for why he acquired the document, would seem to be his need for enrollment under that critical act. Have you also researched it?

Submitted bydpslageron Mon, 09/14/2015 - 20:29

Thank you!  It never occurred to me that it would be a family artifact, but your reasoning as to why it should be considered as such makes sense.  Your question about whether I've researched the National Insurance Act of 1911 caught me by surprise.  I'm not sure why I should be surprised though; I've been told by several research teachers over the years, "discover the reason why the records you are analyzing were created".  I assumed that since it was a birth record, it was clearly created to provide the birth information for the person of interest, and yet when thinking about the "National Insurance Act, 1911" on the top, it does seem there is more to the reason this record exists than I originally perceived.

I did a little Internet research, and it appears that the reason he may have needed to order this certificate would have been to ensure his enrollment in this Insurance Act, which upon it's assent 16 December 1911, provided national medical and unemployment benefits to the citizens of the United Kingdom for the first time.  My ancestor's certificate was issued the 8 June 1912, shortly after the Act's assent, probably due to requirements placed on his employer.

Respectfully,

Submitted byACProctoron Wed, 09/16/2015 - 03:45

It's what's commonly known as the "short form" of our birth certificates (https://www.gov.uk/register-birth/birth-certificates). The National Insurance Act 1911 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Insurance_Act_1911) related to social welfare and insured benefits. National Insurance (NI) contributions are the associated mandatory deductions from your pay, and so this form of certificate was commonly associated with proof of ID for employment..

Tony

I also found this post on the same subject which provides a little more information than I did: http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/GOONS/2006-01/1138717435. I hope it helps a little in terms of the context and history David.

Tony