« Reply #16 on: Wednesday 31 March 21 16:09 BST (UK) »
I wish I had known that not all births were registered in the early years of civil registration. I bought the 1846 birth certificate for George, son of George and Jane, thinking it was my great grandfather as it was the only one in the right area. I spent some time researching this family getting several generations back. I think it was discovering a census record for the right George, also son of George, that made me realise I had been following a false trail and that my great grandfather's birth had not been registered.
This was in the old days before the Internet when searching the census meant scrolling through microfilm in the County Record Office. I doubt it would happen nowadays - if I had found all the census records first I would have known that his mother was not called Jane and therefore I had the wrong birth certificate.
I ordered a birth for someone who I thought was my ancestor in 1856 but it was his namesake first cousin. I then found out that one birth was registered, one wasn't, one died as a child, one didn't. I then found baptisms of both cousins on the same day in April 1856, their fathers Robert and Thomas were brothers.
Researching:
LONDON, Coombs, Roberts, Auber, Helsdon, Fradine, Morin, Goodacre
DORSET Coombs, Munday
NORFOLK Helsdon, Riches, Harbord, Budery
KENT Roberts, Goodacre
SUSSEX Walder, Boniface, Dinnage, Standen, Lee, Botten, Wickham, Jupp
SUFFOLK Titshall, Frost, Fairweather, Mayhew, Archer, Eade, Scarfe
DURHAM Stewart, Musgrave, Wilson, Forster
SCOTLAND Stewart in Selkirk
USA Musgrave, Saix
ESSEX Cornwell, Stock, Quilter, Lawrence, Whale, Clift
OXON Edgington, Smith, Inkpen, Snell, Batten, Brain