Will their births be hard to find?

[joette]

I was just having a look at my family tree & as I was looking at my Maternal Uncles I realised that they had been born outside of the home town-due to wartime evacuation & the latter to complications needing hospitalisation for my Granny's confinement when all the others had been born at home-I myself was born in the same house as my Aunt & one of my Uncles.
I was just imagining future generations wondering "What the heck took them there to give birth"?? After all family lore will probably have them being born/living in the same place all their growing up days.
I am particularly thinking of those where their decendants are "abroad"(Canada) & England who did not have much contact with the extended family & may be unaware-men are less likely in my experience to talk about their births etc.of the peculiar historical reasons as to why their Fathers/Grandfathers etc were born in diverse places. The local hopitals were too busy to cope with a difficult confinement & so my poor wee Granny had to travel to Bridge of Weir leaving behind her three year old & 1 1/2 year old plus three older ones & was there for some time.
I am therefore going to add that info to my family story.It also leads neatly into the Clydebank Blitz & evacuation etc.
I wonder what historical reasons that we are now unaware of took our ancestors to diverse places to give birth,be christened,married or buried.

[Rach]

I wonder what historical reasons that we are now unaware of took our ancestors to diverse places to give birth,be christened,married or buried.

Interesting question, Joette. A great aunt of mine emigrated to Canada. Her granddaughter couldn't find her mother's birth. However, eventually Granny was found on a Passenger List sailing from Scotland to Canada with a young baby.
The granddaughter was told that some women returned to their native shores to give birth. Don't know if this is true or not.

[DavidWW]

Another much simpler reason for "out of area" births and deaths was the introduction of the National Health Service in 1946.

In the Montrose area, for example, many more deaths then took place in the nearest general hospital which was some 13 or 14 miles away in Strathcathro. For more complicated situations, the nearest large hospitals were in Dundee and Aberdeen.

Similarly, it became much more common for births to take place in hospital, and specialised maternity units could be a similar distance away.

Not too much of a problem in cities and big towns, but as soon as a small town or rural area is involved, the general hospital could be quite some distance away. In Ayrshire, for example, Girvan is about 20 miles from Ayr, and 25 miles from Stranraer. While Girvan did have a cottage hospital, that could only handle simple situations.

David