Birth certificate that made me laugh

[LizzieW]

I've just got the birth certificate of an ancestor of mine born in 1880.  Her mother was called Agnes Benson.  Then I looked at the description and residence of the informant.  Guess what it's Agnes Benson, present at the birth    - I was thinking well yes, the mother is usually present at the birth then I realised it was the mother's aunt who she was living with who was the informant.  Oh well it made me laugh.

[carlineric]

I had something similar on a death certificate. The person concerned was Hugh Logan Calder aged 7 5/12 and the doctor who certified the death was also Hugh Logan Calder . The family was mainly coal miners, although a few had escaped to Edinburgh and found new careers.  Hugh Logan, the doctor, was the boy's uncle and had left being a miner to go to Edinburgh University to become a doctor and when he graduated he set up a practice in Leith. The boy's father had become a coal agent in Leith and while studying at university the doctor Hugh Logan had stayed with him. Probably Hugh Logan, the boy, was named to commemorate Hugh Logan, the doctor, becoming a doctor. He appeared to have been the family doctor for a number of relations who had moved into the area and even signed the death certificate of his mother in law.