Genealogy Chat

I have recently been trying to get hold of a birth certificate for my Great Grandfather. My Gran is still living and had given me his date of birth. I wrote off giving this date and I got a reply saying there wasn't an entry for this person in 1905 but there was one in 1904 - could I have got the dates mixed up? I checked with Gran and she insisted that the date is right, so I asked her for the name of my Great Grandfather's parents. When I wrote again to request the certificate they confirmed that the entry they had found for the year earlier had the same parent names - but also with different spellings for the mother. I am convinced it has got to be the person I am after - so who is wrong? My Gran or the register? How do I check this? My Gran is in her 70s so it could be that she has got confused - she gave me 10.04.05 and it turned out to be 10.05.04 - transposition? But the spelling she gave was Katherine Fuery and it turned out as Catherine Furey. Can anyone help?

you will find that a lot of birth year information is incorrect, either because the person wanted to appear younger or older to their respective partners or because they were under age..! i would suspect therefore that the Registrar is probably correct. Heather in a very wet and soggy Bournemouth

I've been asking my nan also about our tree, She's 80. She has been wrong on a couple of occassions, but just like you nan just one or two points. What we've got to remember is that it hapened a long time ago and peole do forget. What I do now is use nan as a starting point but allow for errors - providing they're not glaring. I'd say the registar is correct.

Thanks for your help!! I wasn't overly worried about the year being wrong, that could easily get confused. It was the spelling aswell that made me doubt it, but I guess you are right because the chances of someone else having the same name and the same parents with just a couple of letters and a year difference is pretty doubtful!! Thanks again for your help. I would be lost without you lot to help me through this!!

Andrea I had a similar situation except not quite so confusing. My uncle was born on 29th February 1920 and we always used to joke about him only having a birthday every four years. In fact when he died I remember telling people he was only 13!! When I applied for his birth certificate the register office said the details I had provided were not the same person. I then applied again giving his parent's names and they said the date was wrong. When I asked if it was a day either way, they finally told me it was 1st March 1920. Whoever had made out the certificate obviously had not realised it was a Leap Year!! So even though my uncle knew his date of birth, his certificate must have always had the wrong date - maybe he never checked it!! Lynne Sale

Can I have the prize for the oldest Nan being 'pumped' for information? My 'Nana Gwen' will be 93 at the beginning of September! She has got a few bits of information wrong (giving the wrong child to the wrong G G Aunt) but in general, when we're talking about things that happened years ago she's as sharp as a pin.