Genealogy Chat

Hi all

I have been looking at the indexes of births in England and Wales and often see entries with an asterisk. At the bottom of the page it will say 'see D69' or something, and sure enough their is another entry for that person at a later date. What are they for? If you order a cert which ref do you want, the earlier or the later one?

Thanks

This usually means that the birth was re-registered at the later date. This is often due to a "legitimised" birth - i.e. when the child was first registered, the parents were not married and therefore the child was registered under the mother's surname. If the parents subsequently married each other, the child could then be re-registered under the father's name. The re-registration was of course added to the quarter in which it occurred, with the child's new name also added to the relevant quarter for its birth-date as a cross-reference.

I you want the cert, then you should use the later ref.

Richard

Thanks Anna for pointing that out, it's a new one on me and somthing I wasn't aware of.

And thank you to Richard for pointing out the reasons behind it, very helpfull.

Thanks again to you both, Lou

The following excerpt is from the RCE Help page at ScotlandsPeople
http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/content/help/index.aspx?r=551&1314

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Once an entry in a statutory register had been completed, the original entry could not be altered if an error was later discovered or some other amendment was required as a result of new information,. Instead, each registrar kept a register of corrected entries in which such amendments were written, originally after they had been approved by a sheriff. The original statutory register entry was then marked RCE, Register of Corrected Entries or Reg. Cor. Ent. in the left margin, followed by the volume number, page number and date of the correction.

Corrections to birth entries might be to name, residence, identity, or as a result of a sheriffs finding in a paternity case, with the fathers name being added as directed by the sheriff, or as a result of an illegitimate child being legitimised by the subsequent marriage of the parents. Corrections to marriage entries may relate to name, residence or identity, bigamy or divorce. Corrections to death entries may relate to name, residence, identity or sudden or accidental death.
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I think the same proceedure was followed in England (except that the sheriff's court wouldn't be the appropriate court for obtaining the court order). The URL cited above lets you view (for free) some examples of RCE entries.

So to answer your original question, I think that the original index entry would probably have an RCE reference on it, and the certificate they sent you would be constructed from the two registers. However, your best bet is to phone them (or the LRO) and ask how you handle this.

My father's registration is at the bottom of the page, he was re-registered when he was adopted. The reference next to the handwritten entry referred to his original (illegitimate) birth, whic is under his mother's surname..
However, my father wasn't adopted by the man he called 'dad'. My gran re-married when my father's 'dad' was killed in the war, and dad was adopted (aged 14) by grans new husband.

maggie