Genealogy Chat

Hi I was wondering if anyone can confirm something for me, I have just read that if you were born out of wedlock and then your parents married you had to be registered again and it was against the law if you didn't thank you

Where did you read this?

Is it on an official government website?

I GOOGLED

If the parents have married or enter into a civil partnership after the child was born, they are legally required to re-register the birth. This is the case even if the father is already on the child's birth certificate. This particular requirement stems from The Legitimacy Act, section 9. The relevant form is LA1.

In the event that the father did not already have parental responsibility, the father will acquire parental responsibility once the birth has been re-registered in accordance with Section 4 (1A) of the Children Act 1989.

The Legitimacy Act was passed in 1976..........................

I thought this had changed fairly recently.

It was certainly the case that a child was still regarded, legally, as illegitimate if parents married later even if the father was named on the certificate.

This rule was very useful when trying to find relatives after a death intestate.

Added: I see that the child is now made legitimate by the parents later marriage, but they have three months to re register the child.

I was born before my parents married but don't think they registered me after their marriage, my siblings also born before marriage, is this still illegal. I see from the comments that it was bought in 1976, I was born 1950 so this would not apply to me

The legislation would not have been retrospective............. :-S :-S :-S

Linda, it wasn’t illegal but it could, as I said earlier, cause problems with inheritance.

I expect many people didn’t know then and won’t know now. One site I looked at said the fine ( when they wrote it) was £2 and they didn’t know anyone who had to pay up.