Am I particularly stupid or have others made this sort of mistake?

[Davedrave]

Today I was quite excited to get a PDF download of a death registration I was waiting for, for my great grandmother Sarah, who died in Leicester in 1943, aged 84. Excitement soon turned to dismay. I’d clearly got the wrong registration, because this lady was the widow of Henry, a horse keeper for the railways, and not Thomas, a boilermaker. She died of senility in the mental hospital.

I could have sworn that there was only one suitable Sarah when I’d searched the index. As it happens, there was. I’d searched for Sarah by her maiden, and not married, surname

Does anyone else make such stupid mistakes?

[Kiltpin]

Oh, Yes!  And not just once.

Regards 

Chas

[iluleah]

Oh yes...can I join the daft club

[sandiep]

oh yes lots of times

[Drosybont]

Yes, I have done this kind of thing too!  But on the other hand sometimes stupid mistakes lead to discoveries, eg once I put a middle name in to a search instead of a surname, and found that the family I was looking for had actually been recorded under the middle name in one of the censuses. 

Drosybont

[Viktoria]

You lucky devil !
But very glad for you.
Viktoria.

[Davedrave]

I suppose that I made the mistake because I’d been researching this branch of the family for some weeks and so the surname (maiden name) I used in error for the GRO order was fixed in my brain (or what passes for one these days ). What makes it a really silly error, however, is that I ordered two pdf’s on this occasion. For the other I actually managed a more difficult task: to order the death reg of  someone who had remarried as a widow and so was on her third surname name, and not the name she had when she gave birth to my ancestor!

[rosie17]

Think we have all made mistakes all part of learning  ..The benefit of Scottish records death comes up with both names 

Rosie

[coombs]

Oh yes I have bought certs and found the wrong mmn (mother's maiden name) or wrong husbands name/wife's name and other info that disproves it is my ancestors.