Genealogy Chat

If Reggie's URL is anything to go by, the problem is we're talking abt Birmingham.
Even if we knew the birth occurred in Birmingham RD and not some adjacent RD like Aston, Kings Norton, West Brom, etc, that often cover bits of Birmingham, we're still looking at over 4000 births per quarter, over half of which will be males. So even if we knew the dates of all the births, we're likely looking at a couple of dozen males born that day.

If one looks at any Birm event on FreeBMD, like the faked up:
Births Dec 1936 (>99%)
SMITH John Jones Birmingham 6d 198
then click on the "Birmingham" link, then the more info "here" link, you'll get a list of all the subdistricts that ever operated in Birmingham RD:

Sub-districts : Acocks Green, All Saints, Aston, Birmingham, Colmore, Deritend, Duddeston, Edgbaston, Erdington, Handsworth, Heath, Kings Norton, Ladywood, Lordswood, Newhall, Perry Barr, Raddlebarn, St. George, St. Martins, St. Marys, St. Paul, St. Peter, St. Philip, St. Thomas, Selly Oak, Sorrento, Sprakbrook, Yardley

I've never bought any cert from Birm local office, but I've visited their web page. There's a couple of oddities: firstly, they're the only English office I've seen that images the local rego, so you'll get images of the informant's actual signature; secondly, they don't have a local index - they say send us the GRO ref.

Now the easiest way for them to deal with the GRO ref is for them to have a key, or cheat-sheet, that says in 1936q4, All Saints begins on p 1, St George on p 47, St Paul p 111, St Martin p 166, etc, thru all the subdistricts. I don't know they have this key, but that's the way I'ld do it. Anyways, phone them and find out. If you don't already know the subdistrict for your address, the local family history Soc could help out there.

If there's no key, you could make a stab at constructing one yourself if you had access to the Electoral Roll - there was a 1935 election. In 1936, most births were at home, and women could vote by then, but I'm not sure at what age they became enfranchised.

Sounds like too much work to me - call the local office and see what they can do for you.
http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/certificate

If this is about the same person? why 1936 on this one and 1928 on the other?

The man in question was married in 1935 and living in Luton....so maybe it's about someone else?

Joyce, the two dates also confused me.
Are you looking for your husbands half brother. born 1928.
Was your husband born in 1936 in Luton.

Sylvia

Porkie Pie -
I'm sorry you think I've been drip-feeding you - but I haven't.

The only information I have is as stated above - the actual date of birth - the place of birth - the gender of the child (male).

If I had the mother's name, I'd not be using this site for i'd already have the4 information.

The informant was extremely reliable and had no more information to offer.

I realise that the only way to find out this birth is to use the quarterly index of the town and sift through that, paying for each birth recorded in that town during that 3-monthly period. I'll have to win the lotto first though.

Many thanks to everyone for their help.

So why do you have two threads, with two different years?

Re - "I realise that the only way to find out this birth is to use the quarterly index of the town "

You've never been very specific abt the place of birth - if it were an actual address in say, Birmingham All Saints, then I think the local register might sell you all the b.certs born in Birmingham All Saints on Jan 1st, say - maybe 1-4 b.certs. They might even just sell you the ones born at your addy, but you'ld have to ask them what they could do for you.