RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Deirdre784 on Wednesday 14 February 18 09:56 GMT (UK)
-
I’m trying to help someone (initially looking for a marriage) on a local family history Facebook forum and have found a ‘strange’ birth certificate (i have been sent a copy!).
The child’s father is named and his occupation given but the mother’s surname doesn’t match, nor does it say formerly. The mother - with the same name - signed x as the informant.
Interestingly, the GRO has the birth with a dash under mother’s maiden name so i was surprised to see all the details on the certificate (I didn’t think the father’s details were included if they weren’t married). Unravelling a rather puzzling set up it now appears possible that the mother was married to someone else (not yet sure if widowed at time of 1865 birth) and it was that name on the certificate and not her maiden name. So should the child’s father have been included at all?
-
I would expect the GRO index to have this indexed under the father’s surname as well. In any event the index is only a finding tool.
-
Thanks; it is the father’s name he is registered under.
Edited: found under the mother’s name now too (though not her maiden name). Not helped by the poster believing the mother’s surname to be quite different!
-
Thanks; it is the father’s name he is registered under.
Not sure what you mean by “registered under”? A birth certificate of that date doesn’t state the baby’s surname. The index will usually contain entries under the father’s surname only (if married to the mother), the mother’s surname only (if no father’s details given) or both (if details of both unmarried parents are included in the certificate).
Ah, I see from your edit that you have now found the other entry.
-
Yes sorry, my edit crossed with your reply. i had only found the one entry, under the father’s name as we were looking for the wrong mother. 🙄
-
It may help find the other 5 children now 😀
-
At that time it was possible for a woman to name someone as the father without him giving consent. It was not unusual for an unmarried woman to name a fictional father, even her own father or brother to give an appearance of legitimacy. After 1875 the father had to attend the registration if the couple were unmarried.
-
Thanks Jebber 😀