I have ordered some of her children's birth certs and they were just baptism records. They are listed on the BDMs tho.
NSW BDM records for the era before civil registration (ie before 1856) are NOT birth or death records. They are incomplete, and are based on ECR records E = Early, C = Church and R = Records. They are Baptismal and Burial records.
http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/familyHistory/historyofRegistrysRec.htm#EarlyChurchRecords NSW BDM records from 1856 are NOT complete either, but are more reliable than ECR's. The following is from online summary, and I note that MANY quarterly returns in the period 1856 - 1914 do not appear on the NSW online index, as they were not necessarily received or actioned by the Registrar General's staff in Sydney promptly (sometimes not received, sometimes received but not legible). A better source for ECR's would be the NSW State Library, where there are filmed records, often based on the original parish record rather than the quarterly returns. The parish record often shows more detail for the family (including address, occupation, sponsors etc) than the printed baptismal record issued by NSW BDM.
Also, if there was an inquest for a death, then often NO death certificate is found, as it was NOT registered .... the minister had the magistrate's inquest findings, so did not need a death certificate to obtain permission to bury. This practice occurred even in the 1920's ! So don't rely solely on NSW BDM to find death registrations!
Marriages: Sometimes these records were not forwarded either... Sorry for long post, but simply I am trying to say there's many BDM events that were recorded, but records don't exist at NSW BDM. Newspapers, local parish records, cemetery headstones are often the better options.
Civil Registrations
On 1st March 1856 "An Act for Registering Birth, Deaths and Marriages" came into effect. The Act established a number of District Registrars responsible for the compulsory registration of all births, deaths and marriages occurring in NSW. It was now the responsibility of a parent, in the case of a birth, a Minister, in the case of a marriage, or the owner of a house in which a death occurred to notify the District Registrar of the details so that the event could be registered.
In the early years of civil registration most events were registered following verbal advice from the informant. The widespread use of notification forms did not begin until after World War 1 (1918). District Registrars would then enter the details into bound registers and allocate the registration a unique number. In some Registration Districts these numbers would run sequentially for the whole years, while in other districts a new number series was begun each quarter.
A copy of the registration was made on a loose registration sheet and forwarded to the Sydney Registry at the end of March, June, September and December each year. The Sydney Registry consolidated these returns. They were bound with Sydney registrations first, followed by metropolitan districts and then the country districts in alphabetical order. The consolidated registers were then renumbered starting at 1 and running through the whole year.
