L.R.O. 1/2012
LAWS OF GUYANA
LEGITIMACY ACT
CHAPTER 46:02
Act
14 of 1932
Amended by
12 of 1983
18 of 1985 17 of 1993
O. 19/1990
1 – 14 ... 1/2012 (inclusive) by L.R.O.
Pages Authorised
Current Authorised Pages
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Index
of
Subsidiary Legislation
Page
Re-registration of Births (Legitimated Persons) Regulations 10
(Reg. 3/9/1934, 20/1950)

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CHAPTER 46:02
LEGITIMACY ACT
ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS
SECTION
1. Short title.
2 Interpretation.
3. Legitimation by subsequent marriage of parents.
4. Declarations of legitimacy of legitimated persons.
5. Rights of legitimated persons, etc., to take interests in property.
6. Succession on intestacy of legitimated persons and their issue.
7. Application to person born out of wedlock dying before marriage of
parents.
8. Personal rights and obligations of legitimated persons.
9. Estate duty.
10. Provisions as to persons legitimated by extraneous law.
11. Right of child born out of wedlock and mother of child born out of
wedlock to succeed on intestacy of the other.
12. Savings.
SCHEDULE—Registration of Births of Legitimated Persons
__________________________ 1953 Ed.
c. 165 _______________________________________________________
14 of 1932 An Act to amend the Law relating to children born out of
wedlock.
[14TH MAY, 1932]
Short title.
Interpretation.
1. This Act may be cited as the Legitimacy Act.
2. In this Act—
“date of legitimation” means the date of the marriage leading
to the legitimation.
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Legitimation by
subsequent
marriage of
parents.
[12 of 1983
19 of 1990]

Schedule.

Declarations of
legitimacy of
legitimated
persons.
c. 45:02

Rights of
legitimated
persons, etc., to
take interests in
property.
“disposition” means an assurance of any interest in property
by any instrument whether inter vivos or by will;
“intestate” includes a person who leaves a will but dies
intestate as to some beneficial interest in his estate;
“legitimated person” means a person legitimated by this Act;
“will” includes a codicil.
3. (1) Subject to this section, where the parents of a
person born out of wedlock marry or have married one
another, whether before or after the commencement of this
Act, the marriage did or shall, if the father or mother of the
person born out of wedlock was or is at the date of the
marriage domiciled in Guyana, render that person, if he is or
was living, legitimate from the date of the marriage.
(2) The legitimation of a person under this Act
does not enable him or his spouse, children or remoter issue
to take any interest in property save as is hereinafter in this
Act expressly provided.
(3) The provisions contained in the Schedule shall
have effect with respect to the re-registration of the births of
legitimated persons.
4. A person claiming that he or his parent or any
remoter ancestor became or has become a legitimated person
may, whether domiciled in Guyana or elsewhere and whether
a natural-born Commonwealth citizen or not, present a
petition under Part II of the Matrimonial Causes Act, and that
Part, subject to such necessary modifications as may be
prescribed by rules of court, shall apply accordingly.
5. Subject to this Act, a legitimated person and his
spouse, children or more remote issue shall be entitled to take
any interest in the estate of an intestate or under any
disposition in like manner as if the legitimated person had
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Succession on
intestacy of
legitimated
persons and
their issue.

Application to
person born
out of wedlock
dying before
marriage of
parents.
[12 of 1983]

Personal rights
and obligations
of legitimated
persons.

Estate duty.

Provisions as to
persons
legitimated by
been born legitimate.
6. Where a legitimated person or a child or remoter
issue of a legitimated person dies intestate in respect of all or
any of his property, the same persons shall be entitled to take
the same interests therein as they would have been entitled to
take if the legitimated person had been born legitimate.
7. Where a person born out of wedlock dies after the
commencement of this Act and before the marriage of his
parents leaving any spouse, children or remoter issue living at
the date of such marriage, then, if that person would, if living
at the time of the marriage of his parents, have become a
legitimated person, the provisions of this Act with respect to
the taking of interests in property by, or in succession to, the
spouse, children and remoter issue of a legitimated person
(including those relating to the rate of estate duty) shall apply
as if such person as aforesaid had been a legitimated person
and the date of the marriage of his parents had been the date
of legitimation.
8. A legitimated person shall have the same rights,
and shall be under the same obligations in respect of the
maintenance and support of himself or of any other person as
if he had been born legitimate, and, subject to this Act, the
provisions of any Act relating to claims for damages,
compensation, allowance, benefit, or otherwise by or in
respect of a legitimate child shall apply in like manner in the
case of a legitimated person.
9. Where a legitimated person or any relative of a
legitimated person takes any interest in property, any estate
duty which becomes leviable after the date of legitimation
shall be payable at the same rate as if the legitimated persons
had been born legitimate.
10. (1) Where the parents of a person born out of
wedlock marry or have married one another, whether before
or after the commencement of this Act, and the father or
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extraneous law.
[12 of 1983
19 of 1990]

Right of child
born out of
wedlock and
mother of child
born out of
wedlock to
succeed on
intestacy of the
other.
[12 of 1983]
mother of the person born out of wedlock was or is, at the
time of the marriage, domiciled in a country, other than
Guyana, by the law of which the person born out of wedlock
became legitimated by virtue of such subsequent marriage,
that person, if living, shall in Guyana be recognised as having
been so legitimated from the commencement of this Act or
from the date of the marriage whichever last happens,
notwithstanding that his father or mother was not at the time
of the birth of such person domiciled in a country in which
legitimation by subsequent marriage was permitted by law.
(2) All the provisions of this Act relating to
legitimated persons and to the taking of interests in property
by or in succession to a legitimated person and the spouse,
children and remoter issue of a legitimated person (including
those relating to the rate of estate duty) shall apply in the case
of a person recognised as having been legitimated under this
section, or who would, had he survived the marriage of his
parents, have been so recognised; and accordingly, this Act
shall have effect as if references therein to a legitimated
person, included a person so recognised as having been
legitimated.
(3) For the purposes of this section, the expression
“country” includes any Commonwealth country as well as a
foreign country.
11. (1) Where, after the commencement of this Act and
before the commencement of the Children Born Out of
Wedlock (Removal of Discrimination) Act 1983, the mother of
a child born out of wedlock, such child not being a
legitimated person, dies intestate as respects all or any of her
property, the child born out of wedlock, or, if he is dead, his
issue, shall be entitled to take any interest therein to which he
or such issue would have been entitled if he had been born
legitimate.
(2) Where, after the commencement of this Act and
before the commencement of the Children Born Out of
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Savings.
Wedlock (Removal of Discrimination) Act 1983, a child born
out of wedlock, not being a legitimated person, dies intestate
in respect of all or any of his property, his mother if surviving
shall be entitled to take any interest therein to which she
would have been entitled if the child had been born legitimate
and she had been the only surviving parent and if his mother
does not survive him then such children, whether born in
wedlock or out of wedlock, of his mother as survive him and
the persons entitled to succeed them on intestacy shall be
entitled to take any interest therein to which they would have
been entitled if all such children and the child had been born
legitimate.
12. Nothing in this Act shall affect the operation or
construction of any disposition coming into operation before
the commencement of this Act, or affect any rights under the
intestacy of a person dying before the commencement of this
Act.
____________________
s. 3(3)

Construction.
c. 44:01

Conditions of
re-registration.
c. 44:01.
SCHEDULE
REGISTRATION OF BIRTHS OF LEGITIMATED PERSONS
1. This Schedule shall be construed with the
Registration of Births and Deaths Act.
2. The Registrar General may, on production of such
evidence as appears to him to be satisfactory, authorise at any
time the re-registration of the birth of a legitimated person
whose birth is already registered under the Registration of
Births and Deaths Act, and such re-registration shall be
effected in such manner and at such place as the Registrar
General, with the approval of the Minister, may by
regulations prescribe:
Provided that the Registrar General shall not authorise
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c. 45:02
Fees for
registration.
[18 of 1985
17 of 1993
6 of 1997]

Parents to
furnish
information.
the re- registration of the birth of any such person in any case
where information with a view to obtaining such re-
registration is not furnished to him by both parents, unless—
(a) the name of a person acknowledging
himself to be the father of the
legitimated person has been entered
in the register in pursuance of section
31 of the Registration of Births and
Deaths Act; or
(b) the paternity of the legitimated
person has been established by an
affiliation order or otherwise by a
decree of a court of competent
jurisdiction; or
(c) a declaration of the legitimacy of the
legitimated person has been made
under Part II of the Matrimonial
Causes Act, as amended by this Act.
2A. The fees payable with respect to the re-
registration of the birth of a legitimated person shall be sixty
dollars.
3. It shall be the duty of the parents of a legitimated
person, or, in cases where re-registration can be effected on
information furnished by one parent and one of the parents is
dead, of the surviving parent, within the time hereinafter
specified, to furnish to the Registrar General information with
a view to obtaining the re-registration of the birth of that
person, that is to say—
(a) if the marriage took place before the
commencement of this Act, within six
months of such commencement;

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Compelling
attendance of
parents.

Default of
parents not to
affect
legitimation.
(b) if the marriage takes place after the
commencement of this Act, within
three months after the date of the
marriage.
4. Where the parents, or either of them, fail to furnish
the necessary information within the time limited for the
purpose, the Registrar General may at any time after the
expiration of that time require the parents of a person whom
he believes to have been legitimated by virtue of this Act, or
either of them, to give him such information concerning the
matter as he may consider necessary, verified in such manner
as he may direct, and for that purpose to attend personally
either at a Registrar’s Office or at any other place appointed
by him within such time, not being less than seven days after
the receipt of the notice, as may be specified in the notice.
5. The failure of the parents or either of them to
furnish information as required by this Schedule in respect of
any legitimated person shall not affect the legitimation of that
person.
__________________

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SUBSIDIARY LEGISLATION
_________________
Reg. 3/9/1934
20/1950 RE-REGISTRATION OF BIRTHS
(LEGITIMATED PERSONS) REGULATIONS
made under paragraph 2 of the Schedule to the Act.
Citation and
construction.
c.44:01 Sub.
Leg.

Meaning of
“informant.”

Information to
be for warded
by informant.
1. These Regulations may be cited as the Re-
registration of Births (Legitimated Persons) Regulations, and
shall be construed with the Registration of Births and Deaths
Regulations hereinafter referred to as the Principal
Regulations.
2. In these Regulations, “informant”" means a parent
of a legitimated person whose duty it is to give information
with a view to the re-registration of the birth of such person.
3. Before the Registrar General authorises the re-
registration of the birth of a legitimated person, the informant
shall forward to him—
(a) a certified copy from the register of
the entry of the birth of the
legitimated person;
(b) a certified copy from the original
marriage register or from the
duplicate original marriage register of
the entry of the marriage of the
parents; and
(c) a statutory declaration that the copy
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Attendance of
informant
before
Registrar.

Manner and
form of re-
registration.
from the register of births at (a) relates
to the person of the contracting
parties in the copy from the marriage
register at (b).
4. Where re-registration is authorised by the Registrar
General, the informant, or, if there are two informants, such
one of them as the Registrar General may direct, shall, subject
as hereinafter provided, attend personally at the office of the
registrar of births and deaths of the division in which the
informant resides within such time as the Registrar General
may specify.
5. (1) (a) The registrar of the division in which
the informant resides, on receiving
the Registrar General's written
authority to re-register the birth of a
legitimated person, shall, in the
presence of the informant, enter the
birth in the birth register in the
manner and form set out in these
Regulations, and the informant shall
sign the register in column 7 of the
entry in the presence of the registrar.
(b) The registrar shall enter in columns 1
to 6 (inclusive) the particulars stated
in the written authority as particulars
to be entered in those columns on the
information given to the Registrar
General.
(c) The registrar shall append to the
signature of the informant in column
7 the description and address of such
informant as required by the written
authority to be entered in that
column.
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Re-registration
where no
informant is
living.

c.44:01
Re-registration
in case of
removal out of
Guyana.
[Reg.20/1950]
(d) The registrar shall enter in column 8
the date on which the entry is made in
the manner and form provided in
regulation 71 of the Principal
Regulations in respect of an entry of
the date of registration, followed by
the words “On the authority of the
Registrar General”.
(e) The registrar shall sign his name in
column 9 adding the word
“Registrar” after his signature.
(2) Where re-registration is authorised by the
Registrar General and no informant is living, then, if the
legitimated person is an infant, his guardian may attend
personally at the office of the registrar and sign the register in
column 7 of the entry; and if the legitimated person is not an
infant the registrar shall, if so directed in the written authority
of the Registrar General, enter in column 7 the words “On the
authority of the Registrar General,” and omit such words
from column 8.
(3) In this regulation the columns referred to are
the columns in Form 1 in the First Schedule to the
Registration of Births and Deaths Act.
6. (1) An informant who has removed before re-
registration from the division in which the birth took place to
some place out of Guyana may, with the consent of the
Registrar General, instead of attending at the office of the
registrar to sign the register, make and sign a declaration in
writing of the particulars to be entered in the register on the
information of such informant.
(2) In the case of an informant who is in any
Commonwealth country, the declaration shall be made before
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Copies of
entries and
authorities to
be sent to
Registrar
General.
a judge, court, notary public or person lawfully authorised to
administer oaths in such country, and in the case of an
informant who is in any foreign parts out of the
Commonwealth, the declaration shall be made before a
consular officer of Guyana.
(3) The declaration shall be in such form and shall
contain such particulars as the Registrar General may require,
being particulars to be entered in the register on the
information of such informant.
(4) Upon receipt of the declaration duly attested,
the Registrar General may send it, together with his written
authority for re-registration to the registrar of the division in
which the birth took place.
(5) The registrar of the division in which the birth
took place on receiving the Registrar General’s written
authority for re-registration together with a declaration made
and signed in pursuance of this regulation, shall enter the
birth in the register in the manner hereinbefore provided,
notwithstanding that no informant is present, and in column
7 he shall write the name of the informant as signed in the
declaration, followed by the description and address of the
informant as stated in the written authority, and append the
words as per declaration dated ..........................................” and
the date on which the declaration was made and signed.
7. The registrar on making the entry in the register
shall forthwith make and deliver to the Registrar General a
certified copy of such entry; and shall, on delivering to the
superintendent registrar a certified copy of entries of births
registered by him during the preceding three months for
transmission to the Registrar General, deliver with such
certified copy to the superintendent registrar, all written
authorities received from the Registrar General with reference
to any re-registered entries contained in such certified copy;
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Reference to re-
registration to
be made in
previous entry.
c.44:01

Certified copies
of entries of re-
registration.
and the superintendent registrar shall deliver such authorities
8. (1) The Registrar General having the custody of the
register in which the birth was previously entered shall, or the
registrar having the custody of such register shall, when so
directed by the Registrar General, cause the previous entry of
the birth to be marked in the margin with the words “Re-
registered under the Legitimacy Act in
the.....................................Division of .............................District
on ........................................................ and the registrar when he
has the custody of such register shall forthwith make a
certified copy of such previous entry, including a copy of the
marginal note, and deliver such copy to the Registrar General.
(2) The marginal note shall be deemed to be part of
the entry and a certified copy of the entry given under the
Registration of Births and Deaths Act shall include the
marginal note.
9. Where application is made for a certified copy of
the entry of the birth of a person whose birth has been re-
registered, the Registrar General or the registrar, as the case
may be, shall supply a certified copy of the entry of re-
registration; and no certified copy of the previous entry shall
be given except under the direction of the Registrar General.
___________________
to the Registrar General.