FAMILY BIRTH CERTIFICATES
Three birth certificates found among the effects of the late William John Kay record consecutively, four generations of the male Kay line.
The most recent certificate is his own, William John Kay (b. 1898); which records that his father was William Kay (b. 1871);
Next is the birth certificate of William Kay (b. 1871); recording his father as Charles Kay (b. 1849);
and the third is that of Charles Kay (b. 1849) and states that his father was Samuel Kay (b. 1808) and his mother was Elizabeth Kay (née Donald).
Coloured Certificates
Copies of birth certificates were required for reasons other than to replace lost documents and probably covered a period extending from the latter half of the 19th century until almost the middle of the 20th. They were issued in various colours which often depicted what the document was required for; there were brown, buff and off-white examples; also blue copies shading from light blue through to slate-grey. Applications for such things as pension benefits, National Insurance, employment, education etc, were usually associated with their relative Acts of Parliament and had to be applied for on a separate form.
We have a blue certificate, for Mary Ann Caroline Oxley, also on file. This certificate would have been awarded following an application for the 'Requisition for a Certificated Copy of an Entry of Birth for the purposes of the Factory and Workshop Act, 1891, or for any purpose connected with the Education or Employment in Labour of a Child or Young Person under the age of sixteen years'. The certificate is signed on the reverse as being issued by J. Vanstone, School Board Officer, Bd. School, School Lane, on March 23, 1896 and was possibly a request for Mary to be allowed to leave school and begin full-time employment.
Mary Ann Caroline Oxley was
the daughter of Henry Oxley and Annie Agnes Oxley (née Burke) and great
niece of Charles Kay and Mary Ann Oxley.