Don't believe the indexes

[Norfolk Nan]

Thanks both. I do have the first (possibly only) and eroneous certificate bought from the GRO in London and before online indexes existed and back in the 1980s. I hadn't realised it hadn't been included in the online index until now and am curious. The baby (an accident) was registered as the child of the mother and her husband and given her married surname but actually raised by its natural father. I've often wondered how that was explained in later life. I suspect there wouldn't be another certificate unless either party was forced to admit the error - a very rough and tumble family.

[AntonyM]

I know from a case in the early 1960s where two lesbians married in London by trying to deceive the Registrar that one of them was a man that the Registrar General refused to issue a copy of the certificate to them or anyone else and a note to that effect would be made if anyone enquired.

I know that case (unless there was more than one) and use it in a talk I give about the cases referred to the Registrar General - I have a copy of the relevant certificate ( it is in the case file at TNA).

The record doesn't actually say a certificate can't be issued - it says that any application has to be referred to a certain file, but in practice that was the same result.

[AntonyM]

Thanks both. I do have the first (possibly only) and eroneous certificate bought from the GRO in London and before online indexes existed and back in the 1980s. I hadn't realised it hadn't been included in the online index until now and am curious. The baby (an accident) was registered as the child of the mother and her husband and given her married surname but actually raised by its natural father. I've often wondered how that was explained in later life. I suspect there wouldn't be another certificate unless either party was forced to admit the error - a very rough and tumble family.

If the original entry has been blocked, I would expect to there have been a re-registration at some point.

[Norfolk Nan]

Thanks AnthonyM

I've mailed GRO so I might get an answer. If there was a re-registration/amendment would it be placed at the period of birth - I've checked for an entry in the amended name but have drawn a blank. I've always assumed they simply adopted the natural father's name but wondered how they explained that his 'widowed' (actually single) father wasn't on his birth certificate. Were birth certs needed for schools, marriages etc? in the early 20c or were they less identity-cautious than now?

[AntonyM]

A re-registration would appear in the index in the quarter the re-registration was made (months or years later in some cases). It will be under the district where the birth took place. You would expect there to be a later note added in the quarter of the birth to point to the later entry.

It will be indexed under the mother's/father's surnames that appear on the re-registered entry (depending on their marital status).

You can send me the details, by direct message, if you want me to give more accurate advice.

[Norfolk Nan]

Will do, thank you.