Hello, I am trying to find the record where my grandma's stillborn child was buried in Sheffield. She was born 18th Dec 1968 at Nether edge Hospital. I have tried absolutely everything to try and find this information so my grandma can finally have peace of mind regarding her final resting place. I have tried searching on this website but I am having trouble finding any records for that year - surname was WHITE. If anyone has any information or help they could provide it would be greatly appreciated.
Every so often this questions shows up on our FORUM.
Angela T. gave a very good reply a few months ago.
It read.
Stillborn children were not registered prior to 1927.
Stillbirth registration was introduced on 1 July 1927 to help protect infant life, provide a valuable source of statistical information and to give parents the opportunity to have their child officially acknowledged. When a child is stillborn the midwife or doctor will issue a medical certificate of stillbirth which will be used to register the stillbirth.
Current GRO policy on obtaining stillbirth certificates: "Due to the sensitive nature of stillbirth registrations, the procedure for ordering a certificate of the entry differs from other types of certificates. We will only send out the application form after we have been contacted by phone or in writing by the mother or father (if he is named on the certificate). In cases where the parents are deceased, a brother or sister can apply if they can provide their parents' dates of death."
Angela
Yes thank you for the tip. Unfortunately we have hit a closed case, they were unable to help. We have also tried contacting the hospital directly, local cemeteries and Sheffield Indexers themselves with no luck.
Yes thank you for that info. We are in the process of acquiring a certificate hopefully, however we are told this still wouldn't locate the child's final resting place.
We were hoping to give my grandma peace of mind and a proper opportunity to grieve but it seems no one knows where these children were took.
Always a difficult subject to try and help with. We have been able to help in the past.
1968 is pretty recent so one would expect there to be a record. Even if its not for public viewing.
One would expect Bereavement Services to be able to help.
Was there a reason that your Grandmother had this child in hospital?
My eldest daughter was born 1967 and I had the choice of a hospital delivery or at home with a Midwife. They did encourage me to have her in hospital as she was my first.
One would have expected her (your gran) to have been asked what she wanted to happen with the child? Old stories that I can't vouch for were that these children might be placed in a coffin with an adult but I dont know what time period this was.
There is a plot at City Road that holds many stillborn.
I remember when we started transcribing the burial registers of City Road (1881) the number of stillborns were huge.
I just can't pull up any as I would need a surname.