Genealogy Chat

Could anyone kindly shed any light as to why someone might be registered twice at birth, once with the fathers surname (presumably!) and once with the mothers. Both have the same reference index numbers etc This was in 1927. I suspect I have found the marriage of the childs parents but 18 years later??
Thanks for any help x

If a mother registers a child on her own it will have her surname only.
If the father is present then it will have both.

Children nowadays whose parents are not married will often show under both names ...

The marriage 18 years later may explain it.

Have you found any other siblings - maybe in between?

Jill

Jill, I had forgotten that when I saw my own Daughters name on the register, that she was down once with my surname, then once with her Dad's surname then again with the double-barelled surname we gave her. I wonder why it is registered like that? So I guess that confirms the child i'm looking at was illegitimate. How strange though that they should go on to marry all those years later! They were only 16/17 when the baby was born though, perhaps that made a difference somehow. They didnt appear to have any more children, maybe the experience proved too traumatic!!
Thansk for the help! :)

What you have described is not uncommon. There is only one registration. There are, however, two index entries, one for each surname, so you can look it up using either name.

Think of it like an index in a book, where there can be several references in the index at the back to a single page or paragraph in the body of the book.

You are also correct in assuming that the likelihood was that the parents were not married at the time whenever you come across this situation.