Genealogy Chat

Hi Kathleen,
It was some months ago now that i saw this.I paid credits on here to look into the birth of my mum.She was not in the right order along with everyone else on the births.
There was handwriting at the very end of the list with her date of birth and it was in the name of her married mother

Kath,

The handwritten note is under the surname of the man her mother married the following year.

I feel the birth was registered the year she was born but under what surname? It isn't listed under the mother's maiden name which makes me think she was married before.

I've suggested to Christine she orders the certificate for the marriage that was the following year to see if the mother had been married before.

Rose

Have just had a similar dilemma -
Am researching for a friend - found out that her dad's parents never married - and that her grandfather was born five years before his parents marriage.
And with a different father.
My friend has decided to keep this info from her dad -

Personally - I think I'd want to know - but it's up to you how much you tell your mum.

The other thing is - are you sure your mum doesn't already know? There are many times when I've had to produce my birth cert for id - passport etc

Christine (W)

Hi Christine.
Thats what i keep asking myself..does she know?
She has never been abroad so i count the passport out.I have asked does she have her parents marriage cert...she says her sister has it.
Yes i would want to know but my Mum is getting on in years now and her health is not good.I would so hate to upset her with this just incase she knows nothing

Why don't you ask her sister?

I've found that parents, particularly mothers, are very resilient. Ask yourself, 'Would I fall in a heap if I were told that news?' If the answer is 'no', then I guess your mother would cope too. In fact she'd probably chuckle.

Ozi.

If that marriage was a second marriage, won't there be 2 surnames for name of spouse in the indexes under his entry?

Hello Janice..I was thinking that .Thats why i have
Tied to tap in the marriage to as many sites as i can,Just to check.
I am ordering marriage cert this morning,been thinking about it all night

Dear Ozibird,
There is no way i could ask her sister,honestly.
but thanks anywayx.

It does seem as if the mother was already married to someone else when the birth occurred and without finding the name of the first husband it would be difficult to find the original birth entry.

It seems strange to me that the second handwritten entry is under the name of the man the mother hadn't yet married - I would have expected it to be after she married, although if he was the father maybe they re-registered the birth as soon as the first husband either died or was divorced.

Janice - There is usually only one surname in the marriage index - that of the first marriage partner.

Kath. x

When a child is re-registered there is often a note added against the original entry in the indexes to indicate this, as clearly the new, re-registered entry takes precedence over the original entry and the notes draws attention to that fact, so that the correct certificate is issued.

Thankyou all so much
Christine

Re Kath Bell's post: "There is usually only one surname in the marriage index - that of the first marriage partner"

Whilst that may be true for the GRO index, it isn't always the case for some of the local RO's index. Some of these are at least partially online - try:
http://www.northeastbmd.org.uk/
http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/index.php

I've quite often seen two surnames EG: "smith or brown" in the index as the spouses surname where they have been married before. Of course, that's dependant on disclosing previously having been married.

This is very curious though. Perhaps she was adopted.

When there are two names mentioned in the index for one partner, this is usually when a person has one legal name but is known by another and not necessarily the name of a former husband, i.e. if Mary Smith has been living with a Mr. Brown as man and wife for some time and is known as Mrs. Brown then you will probably get both names (Smith and Brown) in the index even if Smith is her maiden name.

In the majority of cases someone who has been married before will only have her first married name in the index when she marries for the second time - although I do agree that this isn't always the case.

Kath. x

Dear Portland Rose
Hope you get this .
Cert Arrived,no better off,never mind