Genealogy Chat

I have received a birth certificate today and I think the name of the father may be wrong.

I am sure I read that the certificates are only copied from the original parish registers. Can you see these registers?

Thanks

Linda

You need to contact the local registry office. They don't use the GRO reference numbers and usually only need name & Year but they will tell you. The cost is the same as GRO - i.e. £7.

When i said local i meant local to the birth not your local - just to be sure!

I think it depends on whether they are still in use or not.

So, in a small church where not a lot of marriages take place they could be using a register dating back several decades. In a busier place the older registers will have (or should have) been sent to the local records office.

Copies are sent off every year though - are these Bishops Transcripts? - so they should be available as well.

Jill

they arent from parish records but from the local register office records that get passed to the GRO .

You could try the local register office for another copy cost £7 the same But the GRO ref wont be relevant to them, at least you have all the info ie date of birth etc from the copy you have,

If the name isnt too far out it may be thats what was given at the time of registration. ie My paternal gran was Emma Ann but her second hubby called her Annie. he reg the births of their eldest children and reg the mums name as Annie cos that what he called her if i hadnt known better, having known nan and dads siblings, I would have thought i had wrong certs and if i was working backwards would have been seaching for the wrong birth name for nan

Shirley

Hi,

Thanks for the advice.

My problem is that I have 3 siblings birth certificates, all same address Same mother for all three. Child one and three have William Angliss as the father occ. Tailor. Child 2 has George Angliss as father occ. tailor but the childs name is George as well and wondered if it was possible that the name was copied in error.

I have looked for a George Angliss of the right age that could be the father and there doesn't seem to be one.

Linda

Oops Shirley - of course they are. Sorry. Have parish registers on brain at moment as am working through some online.

Linda - think you're right. If William and mum were married at the time of the births of all three children then they would all show him as the father as in the eyes of the law he would be the father.

The only other thing I can think of is - is it likely that William died and mother married his brother / cousin / some other relative? (This seems really unlikely but worth a passing thought.)

Hi Jill,

The certificates have William as father of child 1 and 3 and George as father to child 2!!!! All at same address... Very strange lol

Linda

It's just the fountain pen equivalent of a typo then. William is the dad.

If it had been the first or last child I might have had a smidgeon of doubt but not the middle one.

Jill

Thanks Jill,

It really helps to have someone else read through it all and give their opinion

Thanks again

Linda

think its a mistake by the registrar especially as the child is george , think he got himself muddled when writing out the cert and the informant didnt realise the mistake when they took the cert

Hi Linda,

By a strange coincidence I received a marriage certificate today with a William Angliss as witness. There also appears to be an error on the certificate as the groom's father was given the same name as his son. It is no doubt a long shot but my certificate was from 1860 and was for Croydon in Surrey. Is there any connection?

Peter

In the parish records for Kirkburton I found the bapt of my gt grandfather John, parents William and Maria. He was the oldest child. Quite a bit further on I found the bapt of the youngest child (of 5 as per censuses). Parents William and Maria. 3 or 4 months later the bapt of the 3 middle children all on the same day, father is named as John and mother as Maria. Definitely an error on the part of the parish clerk or whoever wrote it up. It would be interesting to buy the b cert of one of the 3 middle ones (if I could afford it) just to see who was the registered father.
Huia.

Joan, I think they weren't supposed to cross out the original erroneous name. Although the situation might differ between England and Scotland, here's the situation in Scotland:

Once an entry in a statutory register had been completed, the original entry could not be altered if an error was later discovered or some other amendment was required as a result of new information,. Instead, each registrar kept a register of corrected entries in which such amendments were written, originally after they had been approved by a sheriff. The original statutory register entry was then marked RCE, Register of Corrected Entries or Reg. Cor. Ent. in the left margin, followed by the volume number, page number and date of the correction.

Corrections to birth entries might be to name, residence, identity, or as a result of a sheriffs finding in a paternity case, with the fathers name being added as directed by the sheriff, or as a result of an illegitimate child being legitimised by the subsequent marriage of the parents. Corrections to marriage entries may relate to name, residence or identity, bigamy or divorce. Corrections to death entries may relate to name, residence, identity or sudden or accidental death.
http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/content/help/index.aspx?r=551&1314

On My parents marriage cert of 1929 one of mums christian names was incorrect. It was written as Hester instead of Esther. The Hester has a line through it and the correct name of Esther is in the margin beside her name. Don't know if it was done at the time they married and they noticed it at the church and the vicar amended it then or if it was done another time, but it hasn't any ref nos so would guess it was done before the record was sent to the GRO .

I,m guessing the Vicar made the mistake when he was writing out the cert prior to performing the ceremony. he couldn't use a new cert but had to amend his error. Cant ask Mum & Dad as they both gone now.

Shirley

I have got a marriage cert. with 3 x mistakes on it.
The husband was listed as a spinster and the wife a widower!!! Marriage by banns is crossed out and licence written in the margin.There are asterisks and numbers by the mistakes and a little key on the side with the corrections.
The marriage took place during WW1.
Registrar obviously had other things on their mind or was new to the job.

Remember that to err is human.

Your certificate would have been copied from the original entry at the GRO.

Have you found the parish records at the Records Office local to the event? Sometimes extra bits are written on by the vicar/priest which are not added on the certificate.

Have you found the first census return after the birth of the second child? Does that throw any light on the matter? Did the father have two christian names. He may have swapped from one to the other and back again.

The more official records you look at the more mistakes you will find. Even going back to the original source doesnt always help as baptisms were not always recorded at the time of the event, just when the priest remembered he was not up to date with his paperwork. They were there for hatches, matches and despatches etc., and not for record keeping which was the last thing on their minds.

Hope you solve your problem. Have fun chasing the records.