transexual birth cert? Need advice!

[Emma. S.]

I wanted to order my great grandmother's birth certificate but there were a few people with her name born in the same place so I had a bright idea and decided to order her sister's birth certificate instead as she had an usual name Keziah.
My certificate arrived today and the name on it is not Keziah but Josiah
 
At first i thought i had been sent the wrong certificate but on the side a note has been attached saying:
"In No. 445 Col. 2 for Josiah read Keziah and in col 3 for boy read girl.  Corrected on july 1897 by me registrar on production of a Statutory Decaration made by the parents"
Since the birth was in 1885 this "correction" was made 12 years later
Even more odd when i looked on 1901 census Keziah is still Keziah and hasn't changed her name to Josiah??
Does anyone have any idea what any of this means
I'm completely confused
 
Emma

[casalguidi]

Did somebody desparately want a boy and register Keziah as such or was it not too clear at birth whether the baby was a boy or girl?

You do read of these stories at time.

Good luck

Casalguidi

[Emsworthy]

She wasn't one of twins? Keziah's name was registered twice and Josiah's wasn't?

Or maybe the registrar had muddled records up and corrected the wrong one? 

It's a mystery...

Regards, Emma

[Roger Griffiths]

I believe it was not that unusual for babies with indeterminate genitalia to be misdiagnozed as the wrong sex at birth. There are natural transexuals who will grow into typical female form, and be all female but with male genitalia, which of course would not be evident until puberty. Maybe your relative was one of these, and the mother somehow knew from birth and brought the child up as female. The child confirming it by subsequent development. That's the best I can do without any special knowledge.

One of my Grandfathers brothers, Thomas Henry, was registered as a girl in 1871, a pure admin. error which was corrected 8 months later. The annotation to the Birth Certificate was precisely in the same form as in your relatives case.

Roger    

  

[Emma. S.]

Thank you for all the ideas
I suppose my relative was thought to be and registered at birth (1886) as a boy Josiah.
On 1891 census the child is down as daughter Keziah age 5  and then in 1897 age 11/12 the birth certificate was changed to Keziah.

OR How are registrars informed of births? Its almost as if he read the name Keziah and assumed it was Josiah and so put Josiah on the birth certificate? Odd that the 2 names look very similar?
Any suggestions on this theory?
Emma

[casalguidi]

Hi Emma

The registrar is informed of the birth in person by the person who registered the birth - this will be on the certificate.

Casalguidi

[Emma. S.]

Hmm that blows that theory then!
Informant was the mother and its got X the mark of the mother so if she couldn't write her own name she wouldn't have been able to write the childs name!!!!!
Silly me!!
 

[SS from The Rhondda]

What about this theory:

The mother goes to register the birth of her baby. The registrar asks the baby's name, she tells him 'Keziah'. The registrar mis-hears her, and thought she said 'Josiah'. He wrote the name down, and Josiah being a masculine name, he therefore put sex down as boy.

The mother & father couldn't read, so they did not realise the mistake.

On her 12th birthday, her parents hand her her birth certificate. Keziah is able to read and write, having gone to school. She tells her parents that the birth certificate can't be hers, because of the wrong name & gender.

The parents then go to the registrar's office to have the certificate ammended. They sign the 'Statutory Declaration' (whatever that is).

[Emma. S.]

Good theory SS,
 
I'm sure it must be something like that, a misunderstanding seems most likely to me.
Thank you for suggestion

Emma