Wrong Birth Certificate

[orecarrier]

My Grandaughter when born was registered but on the way home my Daughter-in-law realised she had been registered as a male. This has now been corrected(needless to say I kept a copy of the incorrect certificate) The Registry Office was very quick(when they had been informed) to request the return of the certificate and issued the correct one.

Is this an unusual incidence or is it quite common?

Regards

[LizzieW]

I don't know how common this innocent error is, but when I was looking at parish records in Barrow in Furness, I found a correction to an entry (mid 1800s) registering a child as a boy, with the words something like (until I find where I made a note of them!) girl, mistake at hospital!

Lizzie

Modified - Found my old post:

I came across the following written in the margin of the record of the baptism of Richard Hudson who was born and baptised 27 January 1844, child of Edward and Hannah.

"This child by mistake of the surgeon was baptised Richard instead of Elizabeth"


From memory this little baby died soon afterwards.

[Sloe Gin]

Is this an unusual incidence or is it quite common?

With the fashion for forenames such as Mackenzie, Cameron, Madison and the like, it wouldn't surprise me if mistakes were becoming commoner these days.

[Gillg]

orecarrier

The following comments are in no way a reflection on your granddaughter's case, so please don't for one moment think that they are.  However, sadly a few babies are born of indeterminate gender and go on to endure a series of corrective procedures as they grow up.  I know of one who was first pronounced to be a boy, but it was later decided that he/she had more female than male traits - can't disclose more here.  By the time the birth was registered she was declared to be a girl.  She is now an adult woman with certain male traits, such as big feet and hands, and despite all the operations and hormone treatments still has a masculine air about her.

Sometimes it's difficult for the medical staff and family to decide what to do.   

[LizzieW]

When I worked in a hospital many years ago a beautiful girl came in for tests to see why at age of 18 she had not started her periods.   The outcome was that she was actually male and that her "shrivelled" testes were in the place a girl's ovaries should be.  She was given the choice of taking female hormones or male hormones.  She decided as her parents and relatives thought she was a girl, and she had been brought up as a girl that is what she would remain, so she was given female hormones.  No-one would ever need to know and the only problem would be that she, obviously, couldn't have children.

Lizzie