Genealogy Chat

I find it odd you were told surnames did not appear until 1969 as I have a collection of birth certs going back to 1872 and I can assure you they have all relevant surnames on. This is how I traced back some of my family.

Carol I think that's ghastly! And since the original registration was made under false pretences it should be rendered invalid and struck out of the registers, I would have thought. nell

Heather, glad you've solved the mystery, I was following this one with interest! Carol, what an awful situation for your fiance and his parents. That must have been so traumatic, but then to actually have to 'adopt' their own son! Beyond belief (if you know what I mean!).

I had exactly that problem. I sent for a marriage certificate and the wife was Mary Clark . Only on all the census she was down as Mary Weaver her father's name. She was born two months before they married and Weaver was entered as a first name. Clark was her mother's maiden name. When she lived at home she was known as Weaver ,but when she went into service ,she was known as Clark. So she was quite hard to trace... Kim

A more recent event is that my fiance had difficulty finding his birth certificate entry when he needed it to apply for a passport. The GRO subsequently issued him with an adoption certificate. Turns out that he was abducted from the hospital where he was born at just 2 days old and his birth registered in the abductors name. He was found 2 weeks later but his birth could not be registered twice, so his parents had to literally adopt their own son. It must have been awful for them, especially as he was their only child and had him late in life.

I've just phoned the GRO and a rather blunt woman informed me that surnames were not included on birth certificates until 1 April 1969. So the name Johnson is Anna Mary's third first name!! Mystery solved (although an odd one!!!). :O)

Thank you all for your help. I will give the records office a ring and find out what has happened with this. :o)

The same thing happened to me, it seems that the reference number you give to gain the certifcate relates to a page of numerous births. I was sent a birth certificate for a child with the same first names as my ancestor but a different surname, I phoned and the correct one was sent to me. I suggest you check first before making any other presumptions. Helen

This is probably the case that for some reason her surname was chaged at a later point officially. It could be that her parents married after her birth and had her name changed to her fathers. Maybe her mother remarried and she was given the name of her stepfather so that she would fit in with her siblings etc etc What happens when the name is officially changed this way is that the registrar will put a note next to the original entry in their registrars pointing anyone looking it up to the new reference. The first entry can't be deleted from the books as its an official entry so when you search for your name it pops up. Yet when the records office go to their books to do you a copy of your cert it will tell them the person changed their name and direct them to issue copies of THAT certificate as their not supposed to send out the previous name. You could ring and double check this just in case you have got the wrong one by mistake or just to confirm that it was a name change - they may even be allowed to tell you when the change was made so that it may help you figure out a mothers marriage date or a fathers death etc

I have the same thing. My grandmother has 2 differing surnames. This was because she was born to a married woman but the husband was not her father. So her name appears as one thing on her birth certificate and she was known as another. Also registrars will not issue a certificate with two surnames on it - My grandmothers name appears on the original as May Tait or Gibson. (Tait was her mothers maiden name and Gibson was her mothers husbands name) However it had to be altered to May Tait for issue as they would not allow 2 surnames to appear. It may be the case that your relative was also born out of wedlock. Alternatively they may have been raised or lived with another family for a time. My Grandmothers maiden name on her marriage certificate appears as Buckley as she lived with this family for a part of her life. Its worth remembering that registration was not as strict then as now and some of the records are a little of the mark.

If there was nothing unusual in the index itself, then your ancestor must have been known by both surnames and the compilers of the contemporary index must have been aware of this. A certificate would not be issued to you in the wrong surname. Which must mean that the record holds an additional piece of information. Take a photocopy or scan the certificate and then enquire of the powers that be. The obvious answer is that Anna Mary was born out of wedlock but acknowledged by her father, but how would the index compliers know???? Brenda

Hello. I've just got a birth certificate and the surname is different to what I had searched for. I found the details I needed to get the certificate under the name of Anna Mary Moore, but when the certificate arrived through the post yesterday the name is Anna Mary Johnson (it's a bit difficult to read the last name). It's the right person but I'm not sure why this is. There is no father's name on the certificate and in all the census information I have, she's stated as being Anna Mary Moore. Has anyone had something similar?