Hedging one's bets on the GRO index

[suttontrust]

I was checking FreeBMD for the first marriage of Alfred Horsley.  I found it in Dec. 1879, but there's a puzzle.  There are two entries, one for Amelia Thompson Moxey, the other for Amelia Thompson Mosey.  Same person, same marriage, but 2 different entries.  Now, as a transcriber for FreeBMD I'm pretty sure that this is not down to a transcriber hedging his/her bets.  Mosey and Moxey would not have been next to each other in the list, so the transcriber would have known whether it was an "s" or an "x".  So the anomaly must be down to the original transferring of the records.  I haven't looked at the image, it takes too long to download; but has anyone else come across something similar?

[emilysiobhan]

Funny you should mention it...I think I came across the same thing on a scan the other day when transcribing deaths for freeBMD; the same first name, age, reg. district and page number and only one letter difference in the surname. So I'm pretty convinced that it must be one person, listed twice. Maybe the person typing the index wasn't sure which spelling of the surname was correct?

Emily

[Carmela]

I have come across it, too, on at least two occcasions.
No idea how it happened.
 
Carmela

[Paul E]

Hi
Just a thought...
Might it be because the information has been entered twice, but by different transcribers who have read the surname differently?

cheers

Paul

[tarajobrien]

yep i've seen it quite a few times and Paul is right

Tara

[Barbara F]

I have a family with surname Evan-Thomas.

In Free BMD I have found them under Thomas or Evan-Thomas but not both.  However, as I wanted to order some certificates, I checked the Free BMD images and found that in the indexes they are shown under both surnamesie indexed twice,

I also have a very odd marriage entry in 1893 where there is an Amy Louise Parson and an Amy Louise Lewin with the same ref no and there are 5 entries on the Free BMD page.  I checked the index and there are indeed 2 entries; one for Lewin and one for Parson. The reason I am so confused about this is that Amy Louise Lewin became Amy Louise Parson on marriage in 1876.  I wondered whether she was marrying again and there was confusion about her surname. However, her husband didn't die until 1903.  And wouldn't you believe it, I can't find her or her family on the 1901 census.

Barbara F

[jeffH]

I looked for the images at freeBMD but wouldn't you know it: they have no images online for marriages between 1870 and 1881. I got the images from 1837online instead.

You were right to suspect the originals. There is an Amelia Thompson Mosey and an Amelia Thompson Moxey, both registered in Scarborough Vol 9d pg 618.

I had a hard time finding my Great-Grandfathers first marriage. Harries was indexed as Harris. But in this case, the index was right, because every instance of Harries on his marriage cert (even his fathers name) was entered as Harris. It took a while to convince my Grandmother, and myself, that I had the right person.

jeff

[Paul E]

How do you access freebmd images?  I didn't know they had any!

Paul

[jeffH]

Images can be accessed from their main page. The "View Images" button is right next to the "Search" button.