Genealogy Chat

The mother's maiden name is always on the cert...............it doesn't appear on the index until after 1911

And certs cost £9.25 from the GRO.................

As KenSe says it is usually fairly easy to work out (not always) so here is here it goes.

Say you have a Susan Cole b. Poole Q1 1870.
Look at the deaths for Susan Cole 1860-1871 - this helps avoid one obvious error.
Look for any other births similar date.
EZ way: fork out £ 10 for birth cert. It might be the wrong one. Bang goes another £ 10.
Cheap way:
Got to GRU census record search for 1871 entering name, place of birth, date YEAR only.
GRU's free index has the great feature of giving both place of birth and place if residence in the census index.
You should now see Susan Cole aged 1 with her family. Sometimes of course there has been some sort of disaster, emigration, 2nd marriage etc but let's stay with a straightforward case.
The family will show the father, mother and her place of birth, other children.
For this example let's say Henry J Cole was married to Jane b. Wareham 1843.
The oldest child still living was born 1868 in Poole.
Look for a Dorset marriage between 1860 and 1870 ( inc case of bun in the oven on wedding day or a bit overcooked, not unusual) for Henry Cole. Use FreeBMD or GRU index.
In this fictitious case there are 3 but only one for Henry J Cole.
Now use FreeBMD and enter the marriage details with NO NAME just the place, date and page, volume reference.
This will bring back all the people on that page for the date - usually 4 but anything from 2 to 8. One will be Henry J Cole and another Jane with her maiden name.
Ay may have full marriage details if it was CofE church inc parents of bride & groom.
Job done.
Except that two of the brides may both have been called Jane in which case a little bit more work.

there u go

Once you are sure the birth cert is worth the £ 10 for any interesting / important person in yr tree 'cos it has info not in the index, esp. place of birth, exact date and informant. Don't forget a birth in Oct 1871 (say) may not show up until Q1 1872 and so on. Birth dates given in death records are usually accurate for month and year but can be several years out for birth year.

It is usually fairly easy to work out if you have access to census data. If you don't then ask on the Find Ancestors board and I am sure someone will be able to tell you.

The maiden name didn't start being put on the index until c1911. It would, however, be shown on the actual birth certificate if you bought it.

Please could some one just confirm to me why their is no record of mothers maiden name for births registered circa 1890?
Look forward to any information as to why....
June Collis