Genealogy Chat

I am trying to find out how much trouble someone would be in for falsifying information on birth certs.
During my research I have found evidence that a man, who was married to someone else at the time in question, had a child (A) with another woman. She was divorced & had 1 child from her previous marriage.
The birth cert for child A shows the fathers name with the correct fathers initial but his surname has been given as the womans married name ie:not his own surname. On the same cert the mothers maiden name has been falsely given, the maiden name of the mans brothers wife has been used! Confused? I was & it took me ages to find out where this spurious maiden name had come from. Unfortunately child A died soon after birth. A year later this man & woman had another child & the same false info was given on his birth cert. Which would indicate it was a deliberate thing not a momentary lapse! Any ideas where the couple who gave the false info stand legally & would the 2nd child have to go thru DNA testing etc to get his birth cert corrected?
:-S

Don't know about the maiden name issue but there would be nothing wrong with the mother's surname being given as the same as the fathers.

It's not uncommon for a woman to be known by the surname of her partner whether married or not. Totally legal to call yourself whatever you want provided it isn't for ill gotten gain.

I have found in my research it was quite common to conseal a child birth parents, when a child was born out of wedlock or in your case a married man had child with his mistress. You can give a child any Name or Surname when a birth is registered but it is against the law to falsifie the parents

To get info about this, contact your local Registrar's office.

Only they can give a definitive answer.........I would seriously doubt that anyone on here would have the in-depth legal knowledge to advise you.

My father was a registrar. He once did try to prosecute someone for either not registering a birth or blatantly wrong info. I think the fine was £2. He never bothered again.


Andy

I knew of the birth of a child to a (slightly) underage mother. The local GP registered the grandparents as the baby's parents. The child grew up thinking her mother was her big sister. I don't think anyone ever told her. I suspect this may have happened often before in varying forms.