Genealogy Chat

My mother was registered with the middle name Margaret, but baptised with the middle name Mary. Theoretically, the revised name should be registered - it gets put into the last column on the certificate. I aware of that bit because my great uncle was registered initially with the names Edwin Vincent Russell, but this was changed to Edwin Cecil Russell and that second version was entered in the last column of the cert. Both names are logged in the GRO index - I thought, at first, that we'd discovered an unknown twin! Christine

Paul Incidentaly this chap was born in 1838 so I'm praying the lady doing the 1841 census for Kent finds me some answers. Roy

Paul The names are totally different as in Alexander and Robert. The baptism records are in the name of Alexander and the parents names and parish are obviously recorded, the birth cert with the same parents, parish and very close date are for Robert.

Thanks for the thoughts Kathleen , as you can imagine I really don't know which of the names this person took through life with him.

How different are they ? If they're completely different, how are you sure its the same person ?

Could be just a mistake by whoever wrote out the baptism certificate, or perhaps the parents couldn't agree on a name (maybe one registered the birth, and the other spoke to the vicar about the baptism). Unless there is someone in the family who can tell you, then you'll probably never know for sure. Kath. x

Does anyone have any thoughts on why a child may have a different christian name on its baptism record versus its birth certificate? Roy