Genealogy Chat

So what can be done about it?
is there a site that you can report all incorrect?

On my aunts marriage cert they have copied the grooms fathers names down to her fathers name,
must have had a blonde moment at the registrars office. Also had the names back to front, an Elsie instead of an Elizabeth, goodness knows what happened on that day, but was deffo my relative. In all I have about 7 or 8 wrong certs.

I got a birth cert from a register office( hand-written copy)
The mother was married in 1896. at age 17.the birth was given as dec.1894,
which apparently made her an underage (14-ish) mother!!!

the correct date was dec 1897

allegedly the original registrar wrote 7's that looked like 4's

Bob

My mum & dads marriage cert was also wrong. It had my mum marrying my uncle Albert instead of my dad Alfred! Although they're both now dead, I know for a fact that my dad was Alfred. It did cause me a little confusion to start with though. It also had my grandad down wrong too.
Pam

Ooooohhhhh, I've got 2 certs that almost drove me up the wall.

My g/grandfather named his grandfather on his marriage cert instead of his father and to top it off, he was using his middle name at the time too. If I hadn't of been so certain of my g/grandmother's details (which were spot on), I would have though I had the wrong cert.

The other one was his father's birth cert. Mother's maiden name was totally illegible. It took about 25 members looking at the cert to finally make out a surname, BRODGE. When I checked parish records, from their marriage I discovered her maiden name was actually BURRIDGE.

The registrar must have had problems with her strong accent and wrote what he thought he was hearing!




Deb:)

I have one marriage certificate where the groom married under his mothers maiden name (which I think is correct, as I don't think his parents WERE married and he continued to use that surname), but he also made his sister sign as witness in the mothers maiden name. VERY ODD. Mum also registered both births saying she was married to father, but I can find no trace. The sister was only ever known by her fathers surname, except on that one marriage certificate. I could spend hours looking for someone who does not exist.

Oh good Isn't just me then....

My name appears incorrectly in the GRO marriage index because the clergyman's script was very flamboyant and was mis-read.
I telephoned the local registrar who remembered the wedding(!) and undertook to contact GRO to get the index corrected.

Christine

A marriage certificate I received last week is the correct one, but the handwriting is appalling. Had I not known the bride's maiden name in advance, I would never have worked it out.

Sorry to hear about your certs but you might have just helped me out ...
Got some certs today and all is wrong with what i DO know
My Grandmother's father on her birth cert states his name as George (Good because they new him as George)
Just got her marriage cert to my Grandad Harry all good for my Grandad but her blinking father who should be George is now Charles !!!!
Pamx

I have two copies of our marriage certificate. The first one has my age wrong. We then went to the registry office a couple of weeks later and I have another certificate with the correct age.

Ann
Glos

Cheryl......loved the quote from the new vicar "God dosn`t read certificates"........maybe not, but future generations may want to, and just like us they`ll be frustrated and inconvenienced by all the mistakes!!


Nicky

...Forgot to mention the certificate showing birth of a baby GIRL.
It's for my Mum's uncle, b.1888.
In 1901, ...perhaps when cert. was needed to start work ? there was added in the end column that a declaration from his parents stated that he was a boy.
He was...he fathered 2 children later.

Gwyn

Yeah they can be corrected but thats todays ones

what about the ones from the past??
how are we to be sure its right or has the correct details I feel to many people rely on cert's alone.

So when I get asked do I have certs to back that up or help, I want to pull my hair out....

I think do I?? I do but Dose it really matter in the end? I know its wrong ?& am trying to get around the problem by reaching out to others that might be a distant relli that could tell me or know something I dont..


Can't win with one, Can't figure it when you get it..

Cheryl

You made me laugh! I can feel your frustration so well! I am sure the certificate can be changed though. I have one where the child's surname was corrected ten years later by a registrar.

Oh, don't get me started....!!

My maternal grandfather's name is all bum-about-face, names appearing in the wrong order, my paternal grandfather's says Finley - NOT Tinley. My paternal grandmother's says Catherine NOT Kathleen, and my step gt grandfather's names are all turned around the wrong way. .....I could go on...!!!

:op

H

Tell me about it !!..........
I have a small collection of dodgy certificates.
2 in particular come to mind.

I bought a birth certificate of my G grandmother to confirm her mother's maiden name.
IGI and parish records showed it as BROCKHIS marrying in 1829, but I could find no track of that surname. Someone suggested it might be BROCKHURST and parish records and census all showed evidence that this would fit.
Only 2 children were born after 1837, so I bought my ancestors cert. only to find that her mother was shown with previous name GREEN..... no idea where that came from.
The other post 1837 child shows his mother as BROCKHURST, as expected.

A marriage cert. bought to confirm that a certain Edward Henry, son of an Edward Henry could be the person shown as Henry in 1901 census.....showed the bride's father as Janet.
The bride was Janet. A later contact told me the father was James.

Gwyn

they're originals even the copys i've got of my own from BDM building Sydney (abt 3 times i kept losing it) had the same repeat error

I wonder if the mistakes lie with the persons giving the details (not understanding the question asked eg. asked, "mothers name?" they give there own mother???) or with the persons taking the details or the people who enter the info the systems.

There is so many ways they could be wrong how can we be sure too trust the early Australian records when nobody could spell correctly or do math so dates aren't always correct (as we know on the england census)..

I've turned to land titles office to gather proof of marriages place names they hold a lot of useful info to get a bigger picture not just relying on those certs to be 100% correct. Mum just said even her brothers is wrong...

How many other people out there have bought a cert only to find it's 100% the right person with the wrong details about other family members, we here of plenty of people saying I got the wrong cert but did you really get the wrong one or are the details wrong. (or is it just my Family?)

Eg.
I got my great great grand fathers cert the other day it has his mother in law as his mother?????

My mother' cert information is wrong aswell

So is mine it states my dad with my mums maiden name.

The amount of trust we put into the cert's is wrong I think!!