Genealogy Chat

hi, I wonder if anyone can help. Whilst searching for my grandad on bmd records I discovered that he and 3 of his siblings were registered twice, but with different surnames. I've found out his mum was married twice which explains the use of both names but when i requested both certificates I was only able to obtain the surname he came to be known by. Thing is this leaves me with lots of questions over who was his true birth father, when the name change took place, whether he was adopted legally or was just a deedpoll change. Does anyone know how I could find out the answers to any of these questions? thank you.

You can call yourself what ever name you chose to no need to change by deed poll,

can you clarify dates?

also when you say they were registered twice but with differant surnames, this would indicate that the parents where not married at the time of registration were they registered in the same year and quarter?
do they have the same vol and page number

in that case their would only be one birth cert but two references on the index

Roy

What info is on the cert in your possession?

It would seem to me that he and his siblings were born during their mother's first marriage, but were not fathered by her husband.

When she re-married (possibly to the man with whom she had been having a long-term affair) the births were re-registered to show the correct paternal details

The child of a married woman is always assumed to have been fathered by whoever her husband is at the time - unless info to the contrary is given to the registrar.

thanks for getting back to me. the records on bmd are all the same year and quarter. on the certificate my great grandmother is named as her first married name but my grandads given name is that of the man she went on to marry. my research has shown she married the first guy and the first 4 children are registered as both his and her second hubbys name and then she went on to have 3 more kids with the second guy but they only are registered with his last name. she then divorced the first guy after her last child was born and married the second guy? this all happened between 1923 and 1946, which must have been a bit of a scandal!

If all the records are for the same year and quarter for the 4 births in the context of your reply i would suggest that they are all re-registered births

a re-registered birth would replace the original so the original would no longer be issued

for the 4 births to be registered in both first hubys name and second hubys would suggest as Reggie said
The child of a married woman is always assumed to have been fathered by whoever her husband is at the time - unless info to the contrary is given to the registrar.

a married woman would register the birth in her name at the time of registration but if the father of the child was knownand presant at registration he would be named on the cert

Roy

It sounds to me like there's a single rego for each birth.
The unwed couple went to the rego office together, and he acknowledged he was the father, and the kid was rego'ed. A b.cert doesn't give the child's surname explicitly - it's left to be inferred that the kid will take a parent's name (but not which, and it's not legally necessary that the kid do so). The index will have entries for each parental name, both pointing to the same original registration.
Probably later on, she omitted reference to being unmarried to the kid's father, and gave his surname as hers, which it probably was the name she was known as by then.

sounds like the parents weren't married but the father attended the birth registration so his name is on the cert as father Whichever surname you order the cert in its the same cert .