Genealogy Chat

My sister had her children before she got married however when I am looking up the births all of her 3 children have been registered TWICE. Once with her surname and once with her (now) hubbys surname....is this right? It is as though the children can have 2 birth certs? Please help

It's perfectly normal to be registered in both names if the father has his name on the birth certificate. I'm not sure what the legal implications are of this. As in can they have a birth cert in either name..??? Would be interested to know the answer to that Tracy

There will only be one certificate, which is a copy of the entry in the register. eg John Smith and Mary Brown go together to register the birth of their baby Fred. The entry in the register will show child's name Fred father's name John Smith Mother's name Mary Brown The birth will appear in the index twice under Smith and Brown but both will have the same reference which will lead back to the original registration entry. A different scanario would be if Fred was registered by just mum (and so appeared in the register with a line through space for father's name) but then mum married dad which legitimised Fred and the parents could have gone back to the registrar to have the birth re registered. I think then if you ordered a certificate only the updated one would be issued as it supercedes the original.

I think you will find that the reference number is the same for both, this will indicate that they are the same certs. Roy

Sorry for hijacking Kimberley's thread but I'm still a bit confused... Does it mean that the child can apply for a certificate in either name or just the original name given? Just re-read Judiths reply am I right in thinking No they can't only in the original name?

Tracy, If you look at your own birth certificate you will see that your surname doesn't appear in the box for child's name. The child takes surname from parents. So if parents are not married the certificate has two surnames, the child can use either surname but will only have one certificate.

Judith, I'm sort of getting the gist of it now lol. Sorry for sounding stupid. One of my problems was we all have short certificates. Mine has name and surname on top line which isn't an issue as my parents were married, Both my children have the name we 'chose' ie full name on the top line including surname. But after looking at a copy of other certs I have for family history I see what you are saying now. Hope you weren't banging your head against a brick wall trying to explain that to me... If I ordered a full certificate for one of my children it wouldn't have a surname on so to speak.

You should see the birth registration entries for my son's friend. he has a 'triple' surname, his Dad's surname, lets says its Van Den Berg. so you see James Van Den Berg James Van James Den James Berg James Smith (mother's surname, parents not married) All have the same reference number, only one birth certificate.

Judith said: 'A different scanario would be if Fred was registered by just mum (and so appeared in the register with a line through space for father's name) but then mum married dad which legitimised Fred and the parents could have gone back to the registrar to have the birth re registered. I think then if you ordered a certificate only the updated one would be issued as it supercedes the original.' Yes that's exactly what happens. I ordered a birth cert from the original entry indexed against the mother's surname. The certificate that I received had been registered a year later in the father's surname after the parents had got married. Both entries still exist in the indexes, and in this scenario the vol and page references are different because the birth was registered twice at different times. It doesn't seem to matter which reference you use, you still get the same certificate. :-)

I have someone in my tree who was registered twice! The first time on 12th June 1846, Samuel's birth was registered by his mother. Then on the 15th June, She registered him again! Dont know why. There are 2 certificates (I have both) exactly the same details on each including the registrar! Pat

I have two birth registrations for one person in my tree..........in the year 1905. The baby was registered under his mother's surname, then, when she married the father, the birth was registered again under the husband's surname. Reg

Just to confuse matters, I have 2 birth certs, for 2 different surnames. Nothing to do with parents not being married,etc. I only discovered this a few months ago, and applied for this person births cert,same age,town,MMN, I thought maybe I had a twin/or cousin LOL. Sure enough it was identical to my original. When I collected the cert.I said to the lady at the Registry Office, I am going to now reinvent myself. She seemed relectant to hand it over,but she did. Makes you wonder about setting up a completely new identity. Always wanted to be a new me. Trish

so what about deaths? I have a cert for my 2xg g/f and now we have found another entry for later in the year (I will go and check the ref in a sec) I'm sure there is not another of the same name too. Sorry to hijack the thread

Thanks everyone I have just checked this thread from last night!! I had ordered both certs of my relation and sure enough I got a call from Southport records office only this morning saying that both were the same cert! My relation will be happy as she wanted to use the other surname than the one she was using now!! Thanks once again