Genealogy Chat

Can you have 3 births with the same surname, 2 in September Q. and 1 in December Q. all with the same volume and page number?.... Or is there a mistake here?... Godstone R.D.

can you give some details so we can have a look please?

Thank you for reading, Tom. The surname is BELLCHAMBERS, Betsy and Sampson in Sept. Q. 1844 Betty in Dec. Q, 1844 Thanks, Gwyn

Yes, it's possible. The two in September qtr. could be twins (although not definitely as they could be cousins or not related at all). The one in the Dec. qtr. could be a cousin (or no relation at all, just the same surname but another family). They probably have the same page number as there probably weren't many births at that time. Kath. x

I'm looking at the 'Complete Indexes' on Ancestry, which gives the full names. This is the address:- http://www.ancestry(.)co.uk/search/rectype/vital/freebmd/bmd.aspx remove brackets. It's the top section out of the three on the page. Kath. x

Kath I did wonder about the possibility of just a few births there but as registration districts cover a large area, I thought there would have been more births per page in one quarter, so that a new page was needed for the next. I guess not all births were registered then though, so perhapss that's another reason. Thank you for your help. Gwyn

Sorry John My reply to you seems to have disappeared. The entries are hand written on Ancestry, all with the same reference. Thank you for your interest. Gwyn

Thank you all for your input. These are not my ancestors. I am helping with a one name study and the researcher thought she must have copied the index numbers incorrectly, so asked me to check them. I have just phoned Leatherhead, who hold records for Godstone and a lady there too says it's quite possible at that time to have same numbers, but they relate to the GRO books rather than local records. Gwyn

Gwyneth, they started a new set of pages every quarter, reusing all the page numbers, if you see what I mean, so it is just a coincidence if births in different quarters have the same page number. Some districts were much bigger than others, by the way, so some would have a range of maybe 200 pages while others would only cover a couple of pages. The funny names on FreeBMD mean that the FreeBMD transcriber couldn't make out all the letters and inserted 'uncertain character' codes. Kate.

Thanks Kate.