Genealogy Chat

Hello! Am confused and would be grateful for some info!

Is it possible to register someone's birth twice?? I've found one instance where a baby was registered before the parents were married (and the actual time they were born - this is recent so know it's right!) and then it appears they were registered again after the parents were married. The full name, mothers maiden name, location is identical but just two years later.

Also, another person's birth was registered at the same time (same full name, mother's maiden name, location, year qtr but on one it's the mother's first husband and another it's the mother's second husband whom she married two years after the baby was born.

Don't understand...!

It sounds as if the birth was registered first before the parents were married and then again after the parents married.

The first registration would be in the mother's first married name (because that was her name before she married the second time). The other registration was probably in the father's name (he must have gone with the mother to register the birth).

The birth was then re-registered giving the father and mother's names as they were now married.

Kath. x

Hi Kath,

Thanks - that does seem to be what has happened but i just didn't think it was possible. Seems a bit wrong to me! Like in the instance of my brother in law, he was registered when he was born and then again two years later. People may assume it's a completely different person and a new baby when in fact the listing is for a two year old?!! How can that be acceptable?!!

Sorry - not ranting at you, just the system! I'm easily confused and this doesn't help!

Thanks very much xxx

It's the way the system has always worked. If you apply for the birth certificate you will only ever receive the one registered at the later date.

When parents are not married the child is always registered either just in the mother's name - or if the father goes with the mother to register the birth then it is registered first in the mother's name and then again in the father's name.

If the parents later marry then they can (if they want to) re-register the birth to legitimise the child.

This is why buying certificates is really a must if you want to build an accurate family tree.

Kath. x

the later certificate will show the correct date of birth ,they wont appear to be younger than they are

As Kathleen says, if the parents aren't married and the father wants his name on the birth certificate, he has to be present at the registration. It wasn't that long ago that the registrar actually came round the maternity ward to register the births. If the father wasn't there at the time...and don't forget they had strict visiting hours and probably arranged for these things to be done when it wasn't visiting time...then he wouldn't be included on the birth certificate.

My daughter was registered in my name only when she was born as she was born in a different city for medical reasons.

11 years later she wanted her fathers name on her birth cert so we both went to the reg office to re register her birth.

When we were there the registrar told us if we ever marry in the future we HAVE to register our daughter again so it's not just a case of if you want to re register a birth after marriage, its a legal requirement.

Kelly - what's being indexed is the registrations (and only indirectly the births). The real purpose of the index is for people to be able to find where the registration they need is located. After all, a b.cert is just a certified copy of an entry in some register of births, like it says on the b.cert.

Chrisa - that's been the law for a long while now, but, certainly thru most the 20th cent, the maximum fine wasn't severe - just 5s, I think - might still be the max fine for all I know (in it's decimalized version, of course).

Kath is absolutely correct, as she usually is, only the last registration is ever the one you will get when ordering a cert as all earlier ones should be indexed to that.

However, there are exceptions and one cropped up a few months ago with a similar question from a member.

Birth 1st September was re-registered some years later and the correction was duly made to the index for the Sept qtr.for the original birth date.

However, the original birth was not registered until the following quarter presumably the registrar adding the amendment failed to spot this so the original registration, quite correctly so, in the Dec qtr was nor updated.

In theory, at least, you could order and get both the original cert and the later amendment.....!