General Chat

Does anyone know what, if anything, you should do if you find a mistake in the bmd details? My sister's last name is incorrect on the marriage details!!!

Index or certificate?

Check the original - if incorrect then contact the GRO. They might alter the master list, but it won't show up on the published indexes on line.

If the certificate is wrong, you sister ought to contact the register office which holds the original (or if married in church, the 1st transcribed copy) They may have to get permission from elsewhere to have it ammended.

If she was married in Church, then the she should contact the Parish and talk to them about ammendments.

When you say her name is wrong, Where are you looking?

If you are looking at a transcription then you need to see the original entry on the Index



Roy

There are thousands of errors and discrepancies in the GRO index. How do they get there?

1. The original entry was not spelled properly or given incorrectly, especially with marriages. Common.

2. FreeBMD made a transcription error. Very common. They will correct to the original index.

3. The C19 indexes were handwritten and transcribed into print or typewritten at later date. Errors in the transcription - these may also have errors in the volume and page number. Common.

4. Not really and error but people often went by a different name to their official christian name e.g. Archibald Victor Lankowich may have gone through his life as Victor Lansley. So be careful matching a set of birth, marriage and death that they are indeed the same person. Common.

5. Woman getting married for a second time sometimes used their former married name although the maiden name is required. Quite often there is a second, corrected index entry. Common.

6. Children of parents with previous marriages may be registered under the different surname to their birth father. This is increasingly common as are corrections to it. E.g. Mrs Fox gets married to Mr. Hunt and they have 2 kids. She then has an affair with Mr. Digby and has 2 more kids with him while still living in the fox hole. Later she divorces and has a child with Mr. Digby. Mrs Digby nee Fox now goes along to the R.O. and re-registers two of her kids from Fox to Digby - she needs the confirmation of Mr Digby to do this. The gap between the two birth registrations can be several years. Fairly common . Children affected by this can only use the revised entry for passports etc - there is a cross reference in the GRO internal records.

7. The place of birth and the place of registration can be some distance apart - my grandfather was born in Portsmouth but registered in Lincoln. Uncommon.
8. Mothers maiden name spelt incorrectly in birth certs. Very common. Sometimes where the mother had a previous marriage that name is given rather than the maiden name - rare.

For modern day records corrections can be lodged and the corrections will be on any copy certs issued BUT the original entry will remain unchanged.

For older records the most effective method is to submit a correction or addendum to FreeBMD.

Unfortunately the modern GRO system does not have a matching paper trail and is even more open to abuse than the previous system. The recent case where the Metropolitan police constructed false IDs based on dead children is one instance of that. It is also unfortunate that there is no longer public access to the old paper GRO records.

http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/Linking/index.html

She was married in Church and I was looking on the free BMD search, just wondered if you know if there is anyway you can search recent bmd's for free and when did the paper version stop. Thanks for all help and suggestions

It is her maiden name, not her first name which is wrong which makes it difficult for people trying to trace relatives!

My grandfather's surname is wrong on the GRO index and on his marriage cert. It cannot be changed, and yes it did make finding the marriage very difficult!

Is the name very wrong or could it be found by using the phonetic search?

I am assuming that you checked the image and that it is wrong on there, not just in the transcription. If the image is correct, you can ask freenbmd to do a correction.

If it is wrong on the image, you could add a postem to both of the entries would point any one searching for the man in the right direction.

I'm really new at this... what is the GRO index? By image do you mean the type written pages that you look at, if not how can I view the image? Sorry for all the questions

The FreeBMD site is a searchable transcription of the GRO Index. The result of the search (year, quarter, registration district, volume and page) enables you to order the certificate from the GRO.

The typewritten page is the image of the GRO Index and the freeBMD transcription should agree with that. If the name is correct on the typewritten page but wrong in the freeBMD transcription then you can get freeBMD to change it.

I found that my maiden name was incorrectly shown in my marriage record on the Indexes on Ancestry & FMP. I wrote to the register office where we were married and had a reply from the GRO in Southport confirming that the original entry at the register office was correct and the error was just in the GRO index.

The confirmed they would amend the index records at the GRO but obviously any incorrect info. on websites would still stand.

Hubby registered the birth of our daughter. He didn't notice they spelt my surname incorrectly . I did and was going to see if a correction could be done but I was so caught up in caring for her with feeds etc and OH being on shifts that I didn't have the time to make two bus journey to the Register Office to see if it could be amended so her birth cert still has my maiden name incorrectly spelt