Genealogy Chat

Hi all,

I'm new here so if I have posted in the wrong place please be kind!

I am trying to track my Dad's family down which is proving problematic as he was adopted. However, as a whim I typed my husband's name in and it appears there are two identical entries for his birth, one in 1972 (which is his birth year) and another in 1974. The name and place of birth is the same (and not an overly common name) and mothers maiden name is the same. How could this be possible? We do not have communication with his family so cannot simply ask I'm afraid.

Any ideas gratefully welcomed.

Thanks,

Lisa

Were his parents married when he was born?

We thought they were at the time of his birth, but it looks as though they were married in 1974, which was the second and later entry. Is that the key?

Thank you for responding !

I would think that is the reason

hi lisa
i know from my own childrens birth
that if the perants are not married at the time of birth and the father did not go with the mother to the register office then the birth have to be re-register
when the perants get married

2 of my children have 2 birth entries
and the children i have afther we married only have one

hope this helps

Actually, Shelly's scanario is not the only one.
If the parents were not married, but the father did go down to the rego office to rego the birth, there would be 2 enties in the index for 1972 - one under the father's surname, and one under the mother's surname if different. Both index entries would point to the same b.cert - there's only one of those. If the father didn't go down to the rego office (or otherwise acknowledge the birth), the birth would only be rego'ed in the mum's surname.

When they subsequently wed, they were supposed to go down and re-rego the birth - if the parents subsequently wed, the child was no longer legally illegitimate, and the b.cert would be modified to mask the earlier irregularity.

So what you need to do to satisfy yourself is type in your hubands mothers maiden name and his forename and see if he is registered under that as well in 1972.

We have an examples where births were registered three times....!

Mother married in 1947, had two children then left husband for another man with whom she had a further nine children between 1951 and 1962. years, but registered with the surname of he first husband, to whom she remained legally married.

She eventually married husband no 2 in 1968 and in 1970 all nine children were re-registered with his surname, giving rise to a further two entries, one for the quarter they were re-registered, and one for the quarter they were originally born. The birth quarter entry is handwritten in the index and refers to the later re-reg entry. The original birth entries appear to be unaltered with no handwritten notation referring them to the later re-reg.

If all that wasn't enough, two of the children have a further registration later in 1970, we think because an error mas made with the their first re-reg, making four entries in all.....! In these cases the original 1970 re-reg has been altered to refer to the later one.

Thanks all, it has come as a surprise that they weren't married at the time, but it all makes sense.

However my husband is disappointed that he is not two years younger than he thought.... :-D