Genealogy Chat

Thank you all for the prompt replies and for providing an answer to my query. It now makes sense.

Colin

The "correct" name is the one in col 10 - really b.certs don't necessarily have any connection with people's legal names. Their legal name is whatever they say it is, so long as this isn't done for fraudulent purposes - in the case of minors, it's whatever their parent says it is.

Note, col 2 is headed "Name if any" which leads to entries in the GRO index like:

Births Sep 1837 (>99%)
CLEWORTH Female Leigh 21 347

How many people called Female Cleworth do you think there are?

LancsBMD gives her col 10 name:

Lancashire Birth indexes for the years: 1837
Surname Forename(s) Sub-District Registers At Mother's Maiden Name Reference
CLEWORTH Sarah Culcheth Wigan & Leigh MARSH CUL/1/2

She was actually baptized 10/9/1837 at Leigh St Mary the Virgin, so I imagine her col 10 entry occurred before the end of the quarter, so appears in the GRO b.cert copy - I guess the GRO indexers stuffed up - well it was the first time they'd done that job, so maybe not all the wrinkles had been ironed out.

Colin, Column 10 is for names given after the initial registration, The suffix is to show that there has been an amendment to an original entry,

All births registered have to count and be entered in the records and indexed none can be removed or deleted even when its because of a simple spelling mistake which is why you sometimes find more than one entry for the same person

The web site that MarieCeleste posted the link for is very good and worth keeping in your favorites list

Roy

Hello Colin, this might help

http://www.dixons.clara.co.uk/Certificates/births.htm#COL2

Perhaps the parents changed their minds after the birth was registered and had the other names added.

Whilst searching the BMD index for a relative born in the 1930's I found two entries next to each other, one containing the name of the person I was looking for and a second with a different first name born to the same mother on the same day, same place. The page number in the index was the same except the second had a letter 'a' suffix. The first name of this one was completely unknown to me. At that point I thought they were twins

I now have a copy of the birth cert of the one I did not know. This has the first name in column 2, the same as that in the index. However in column 10 with the heading 'Name entered after registration' it has the first names of the one I know. It would appear that the two index entries refer to the same person. Is this possible and if so what is the correct name.

Thanks

Colin