Thread: Born in St. Pancras Old Church??

Hello, I'm a bit puzzled after receiving the birth certificate of my Nan's half-sister, Laurie May Burgess.



It states that she was born September 11th 1881 at 115 Pancras Road. I did a little searching around on the Internet for this address and have found that St. Pancras Old Church is at this same address. It also says that the mother's/informants residence at the time was also this same address.



Can this be possible that she had the child in the church, or was there some sort of church organization within the church boundaries that helped unwed mothers? The mother Mary Chapman had had a child previously a year earlier at Queen Charlotte's Hospital in London where unwed mothers could give birth for one occasion only.



Any thoughts and ideas about this would be gratefully received.



Thank you!



Regards



Gillian

I am not absolutely sure but I think you will find that the site of the present day St Pancras Hospital was once the Workhouse with an Infirmary, and its chaplaincy was within Pancras Old Church jurisdiction. Part of it is the original 18th century building. St Pancras Old Church was restored after 1847. At that time it had been the only church in the area. By the turn of the 19th/20th century, however, there were something like 30 parishes within the original old parish.

It would make sense that an illeg child would be born in the Workhouse Infirmary. Often euphemisms or full addresses were given by informants to cover up the fact that it was the workhouse where the child was born. Not that it fooled most registrars, but it looked better on the certificate.



Yours

Victoria

Hi Gillian,



We had a similar question to this before. I have tried looking in the search engine but I cannot find it. It must have been on one of the previous AA sites. That one was for 1 Oldchurch Road Romford which also turned out to be a Church. It was next door to the workhouse infirmary so I would think that 115 Pancras Road was probably the same as Victoria has suggested.

Hello Victoria and Starlight, Thank you for both replying to my post. It all makes sense what you wrote Victoria and, if other little white lies my Gt. Grandmother told in other records are anything to go by, it certainly looks like she would want the birth registration to sound 'respectable' too.



Thanks for helping to make this all clearer!



Best wishes,



Gillian