Birth Certificate Query

[stanmapstone]

As usual without having the full details it is difficult to decide what happened. Was the certificate ordered for the 1941 or 1937 GRO reference, and is the birth registered twice?

Stan

[Lostris]

Already effectively asked that Q .....

I hadnt got round to asking if there were in fact two Index entries for the Birth .....

Given the Act states:-

In those circumstances, the legitimised birth was re-entered in the birth indexes for that year (sometimes many years after the original birth). The original entry would be annotated to refer to the new entry.

So, if theres not an Index entry in 1937, then this could well be simply that the child was never registered at birth, and someone in 1941 is sorting that ....

[ScouseBoy]

It could be that when the child needed to be registered for School  or a ration card that someone discovered that there was NO  birth certificate.

[stanmapstone]

  In the first column "where and when born" it states 29th July 1941 but the 1941 is crossed out and replaced with 1937.

If the certificate has been altered then normally there should be a note in the margin of the certificate. Corrections of errors discovered, at the time of entry, before completion of the certificate are numbered and initialed in the right hand margin of the certificate.

Stan

[ScouseBoy]

The registrar should have started a fresh new certificate  without a crossing out, you would have thought?

[stanmapstone]

The Registrar would follow the instructions of Section 36 in the 1874 Registration Act "Correction of Errors in Registers"
(2.) Any clerical error which may from time to time be discovered in any such register may be corrected by any person authorised in that behalf by the Registrar General, subject to the prescribed rules.
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1874/pdf/ukpga_18740088_en.pdf
Stan

[ScouseBoy]

However,  IF   the registrar realised her mistake  before completing the entry in the register.  Then they should have  immediately terminated the entry on that sheet of paper  and gone to the next page  and started   a new  correct entry.   The date of birth is the most important part of the certificate,  it needs to be correct and accurate.

[stanmapstone]

I think it very unlikely that the registrar would go to the next certificate in the register book, and delete the previous one. The act clearly states that corrections of errors discovered, at the time of entry, before completion of the certificate are numbered and initialed in the right hand margin of the certificate.

Stasn

[heywood]

It could be an illegitimate birth, later legitimised by the parents marrying?

  That is pure speculation  without any evidence to back it up, surely?

I suppose that is why the question uses 'could' as in your reply #11