Birth records can be found online at one of several commercial genealogy websites, such as Findmypast, Ancestry and MyHaritage. Alternatively, they can be sourced free of charge from FamilySearch, run by the Church of Jesus Christ of latter Day Saints. But when an internet search yields no results, you have to look elsewhere.
When it became clear that the only birth record for my grandfather, David Scott Ritchie, was a statutory declaration signed by his mother Maude 16 years after the event, and that a proper birth certificate was necessary for my application for UK citizenship, I resolved to track down any and every form of proof relating to his birth that I could. No stone would be left unturned, I told myself. Puzzles have always appealed to my problem-solving nature, which stood me in good stead to be successful. Added to that, I have a sense that everything in life is connected and that my parents and grandparents would want me to uncover the secrets of the past. Perhaps, by setting my intention to find the missing birth certificate, I would assist things to miraculously come together.
My approach was to take a step back and tackle the problem indirectly. One idea was to track down David's British passport in the hope that it would prove him to be English by birth, but that attempt failed. I then tried to trace his father's family of origin, but there were too many Ritchies and too few links in the genealogical chain to rely on. I wondered if i could track down a living cousin from another branch of the family tree who might know of a story that had been handed down through the generations. Although I found some good leads, however, this approach would clearly take time. I browsed for out-of-print books, old documents, diaries and family history blogs, but all to no avail. In desperation, I grilled my 85-year-old aunt to discover if there were any scraps of information languishing in her memory from long ago, but of course, she had told us all she knew.
It was time, I decided, to call in professional help. I've listened to enough genealogy podcasts and visited enough official archival websites to know that such help is readily available. You can either appeal to the genealogy community at large, asking those on the ground in a particular location to perform a "random act of genealogical kindness", or you can enlist a full-time researcher to work on your behalf. Feeling that it would be worth the cost if I could find a birth certificate, I decided to go the paid route.
At this point, I have sent off my details and transferred a sum of 30 pounds to a registered London family historian. I now await the outcome of her investigation. She has warned me that it is a long shot, that the existence of a statutory declaration probably indicates that the birth was not registered at all, either because the child was illegitimate or because the parents neglected to comply with standard procedure. Yet Maude herself came from a family where every one of the children's births were registered, suggesting that she wasn't likely to flout the rules. We shall just have to wait and see.
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