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Topic: GRO v Registrar - differences in transcription (Read 301 times)
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Cheryl_US
RootsChat Member
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Posts: 104
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Hi! I'm confused by discrepancies between the local and national BMD indexes. The individuals appear to match, but the name transcriptions and the registration districts differ. Perhaps someone can help explain. Thanks!
Example:
Alice Tynan (1839):
Cheshire BMD- Registration District Mottram (Cheshire)
UK BMD- Registration District Ashton under Lyne (Lancashire) "Synan"
James Tynan (1837):
Cheshire BMD- Reg District Dukinfield (Lancashire)
UK BMD- Reg District Ashton under Lyne (Lancashire) "Tyman"
John (1837):
Cheshire/Lancashire BMD- not found
UK BMD- Reg District Manchester (Lancashire) "Tynin"
*
[Tynan family appears in 1841 Cheshire as "Tyney." Family- Margaret, Mary Ann, Michael, John (b. Sep 9, 1837), Alice.]
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Warwickshire: Sadler, Shepherd, Wilday, Bickley
Lancashire/Ireland: Tynan, Nelson
Middlesex: Touzelin
Scotland: Monro
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mshrmh
RootsChat Veteran
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Posts: 655
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Cheryl_US - I was a little confused by your post, but think I understand. I checked Alice Tynan -
Cheshire BMD has her as 1837-1839 Mottram sub-district
FreeBMD has Alice Synan 1839 Ashton etc
UKBMD is an "umbrella site" that allows you to search the various local BMD sites that run on the same software as CheshireBMD. Their multi-region search site is at
http://www.ukbmdsearch.org.uk/
The sites that run on this software are created by volunteers going in & using the local registrar's copies of the registers and transcribing the (limited) information on to their databases.
FreeBMD (what I think you refer to as UKBMD) is a site where volunteers have transcribed the GRO indices and created a database that covers England & Wales. The GRO indices were created from transcripts submitted by local registrars to the centre each quarter which were then compiled into a countrywide list. These are a further transcription away from the original register than those used to compile the databases for CheshireBMD and the parallel sites. (Stan who posted above has some excellent links on the levels and possibilities of errors at the various stages of transcription, but here's one http://www.lfhhs.org.uk/help/factsh/lbmd.htm ). A lot of possibilities for human error in there! FreeBMD is also available as part of Ancestry, as well as at http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/cgi/search.pl
As Stan has said the areas you mention are all close together & especially in the early years registration districts (ie the GRO level on the FreeBMD site) often crossed the old county boundaries (I have relatives born in Staffordshire, but registered in a Cheshire district, due to the same thing) - all adds to the confusion, especially if you're not local as I assume from your username you're not!
None of these sites is 100% complete - FreeBMD is very near upto the early 1900s, the local BMD sites (Lancashire, Cheshire etc) vary - hence you may find a listing on one site, but not on another. Just occassionally you find the dates differ - I'd guess where the localBMD transcriber has used the event date & not the registration date & the difference crosses a year end.
Hope that hasn't confused you more!
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Mean_genie
RootsChat Senior
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Posts: 486
Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
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The national indexes list entries by Registration District, which as Stan has pointed out sometimes straddle county boundaries, because they are almost always the same as Poor Law Unions. On local sites like the marvellous Cheshire BMD, they usually go into more detail. In this case they show the actual sub-district, which is very helpful. Marriages will often show the name of the church, and some of the Cheshire death entries show the age at death back to 1837, a detail that does not appear in the national indexes until 1866.
If you are lucky enough to be searching in a county like Cheshire that has a good local site, always use it when you can, it will be more accurate, because they are working from the original records not copies. A marriage I spent years searching for in the GRO indexes magically came to light in Cheshire BMD, because the vicar had written the wrong Christian name for the groom on the copy that he sent to the GRO.
Mean_genie
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Cheryl_US
RootsChat Member
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Posts: 104
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Thanks so much! All of your answers are very interesting and informative. You've certainly cleared things up! The links are helpful, too.
Your last comment, Mean_genie, sparks another question. My preference has been to order records from the GRO, as they accept credit card orders online. Will these records be identical to the local records, or are they from a transcription? It sounds like if you ordered that record from the GRO, it would have had the wrong Christian name?
Thanks again!!
Cheryl 
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Warwickshire: Sadler, Shepherd, Wilday, Bickley
Lancashire/Ireland: Tynan, Nelson
Middlesex: Touzelin
Scotland: Monro
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Mean_genie
RootsChat Senior
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Posts: 486
Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
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Yes I did order it from the GRO and it was wrong, as I knew it would be, but I was desperate. I wanted Sarah Ridgway to have married Joseph Rhodes in the early 1850s, in or near Ashton Under Lyne. The best I could find was a marriage to John Rhodes in Stockport in 1852. I ordered it, hoping that the cert would say Joseph, and he had just been wrongly indexed as John. Some hopes!
So I abandoned that line and did something else instead. Years later, Cheshire BMD went online, and I looked there, ever the optimist, hoping that I would find the marriage of Joseph and Sarah in 1852. And I did! So I ordered it, and now I have two copies of the same marriage, one from Stockport Register Office and one from the GRO, with the same details except for the groom's name.
The original entries are those made by the registrars (and clergy in the case of most marriages), and these are still held in the register offices. There are two copies of each Church marriage register, both filled in at the time of the marriage, and signed by the parties. Both are held at the church until they are full, when one is sent to the Register Office, and the other is either kept at the church or, more usually, deposited in the County Record Office.
Every three months each registrar and clergyman had to make copies of all the events registered in the last quarter, and send them to the GRO, who collated and indexed them. These copies are the ones that are still used by the GRO to issue certiticates. So if there is an error in the GRO copy, that is how it will be indexed, leaving aside any errors that the GRO might make all by itself, of course.
Most of the time the copies you get from the GRO will be absolutely fine, but as you can see there are errors and omissions. So the local record is always better if you can use it, but most of the time it won't matter very much.
If you are researching in Cheshire, have you used the Cheshire Record Office site?
www.cheshire.gov.uk/recoff/home.htm
There is some very useful stuff online there, notably wills and some very nice tithe maps.
Mean_genie
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mshrmh
RootsChat Veteran
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Posts: 655
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Cheryl - Mean_genie has given you a full answer to your later question. I'd just add one thing. The local register office has a the original registration, but the GRO a copy, so what you get from the GRO is always a copy of a copy. The local office will give you a copy based on the original either a handwritten/typed version prepared by the registrar or a "photocopy" of the original on a form that is topped & tailed by the registrar - in the latter case you get to see your relative's signature (or mark) which to me adds to the satisfaction. It seems that more local offices are moving to the "photocopy" style, but not all do it yet. Sadly as you're not in the UK I don't think all local offices take credit cards, but some do, but by post (check on the form you get on the localBMD site for payment methods).
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