1855 was a very good year for Scottish BMDs, ….........

[Currie]

…........ but January and February were very bad months for Births.

Here's the official word on the subject. From “First detailed annual report of registrar-general of births, deaths and marriages, Scotland” http://www.histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/Pag ... =10&zoom=5

“As Registration was comparatively new to Scotland, it was natural to expect that some deficiencies would occur in the Registers at the first starting of the Act; but so carefully had the Act been drawn, and so many means had been devised to check the exact number of Deaths and Marriages, that from the very commencement of the operation of the Act, on the 1st January 1855, it is believed that scarcely one Death or Marriage which occurred from that period has been omitted to be registered.

The checks devised for securing the Registration of the Births were not so effectual at first; so that, for the first month during which the Act was in operation, there was a deficiency in the Registration of the Births to the extent of one half, and for the second month to the extent of one quarter, below what they ought to have been. From that date, however, to the present, the system has worked so efficiently, and the people themselves have been so anxious to avail themselves of the benefits arising from the Registration of the Births of their children, that there is good reason for believing that very few Births indeed now escape Registration.”


From March 1855 monthly birth registrations usually exceeded 8,000. In January 1855 there were only 4378 registrations, and in February only 6946.

Some years ago a 3rd cousin of mine travelled to Scotland and searched the records of GROS for the birth of his Great Grandmother. She was born on 24 January 1855, she had told him so, and all the other records supported that date. There was not a trace to be found.


Hope that's interesting,
Alan

[speleobat2]

My grandfather's uncle Alexander was also born in January of 1855 and I have never been able to find a birth registration for him. I guess people weren't used to this idea in the beginning so they didn't all go down and register their events.

Carol

[Grendlsmother]

My great-grandmother (according to all subsequent records of her) was born in 1855 and I have never been able to find her birth record. Perhaps she too was born in January!