Find Ancestors

Any suggestions as to why a person would have his birth registered under two different surnames but with same mother's name , other than she wasn't sure who the father was or she was pregnant when the biological father died/divorced and remarried before the child's birth?

The parents could have married after the child was first registered and to take the fathers name they would have to re-register the birth

It means that the parents weren't married but the father acknowledged paternity and his name is also on the cert .

In theory the child could be known by either surname

Whichever cert you ordered it would be the same cert you would get . There aren't two certs

If the reg numbers are the same, then the index reflects all the surnames on the certificate eg
Father - John BROWN
Mother - Jane SMITH formerly GREEN

GREEN being her maiden name
The birth would be transcribed as

SMITH (child) mmn GREEN
BROWN (child) mmn GREEN

So Jane Smith nee Green was either divorced, widowed or still married to Mr Smith.
Because John Brown attended the registration and claimed paternity, his name will be on the certificate. It he hadn't attended, the assumption was that the child was fathered by Janes's husband (even if he died years ago!)

The usual explanation is that a married woman had a child with another man

Not necessarily Jacqueline .

It does mean the couple werent married but could both be single too

We have that scenario in my close family .

I said usual.........not only

However, the simple explanation is that the parents were not married to each other.

The poster hasn't made clear whether either of the registration names was the mother's surname..................it does make a difference

Hello Sandra and welcome to the Community boards.



(I'll let Sandra know how to find her replies) :-)