I hope as you all have a fair bit of knowledge someone may be able to help me! I have a photo copy of a birth certificate, the copy of which was 1955 for a birth of 1906. There is no record of the entry when I have checked the entry 'for real'. Any one have any idea why this is not in the book? I also have on my husbands side a relative who was on the 1901 census as a baby in prison with his mother but again no entry on the BMD. Would this one be because he may have been born in prison?
Many thanks Jacky

I'll ask the question - are you looking in the real BMD records or the FreeBMD transcriptions ?

Hi Slowhands
I have looked at the original record books in London and can find no trace of the relatives being recorded there.Thanks for your interest.
Jacky

If you're happy to give the ancestors names perhaps someone here may be able to help you find them. A different pair of eyes so to speak

Occasionally the records from the local Registry office simply did not make it to the national GRO (in London / Southport ), hence the gaps that are sometimes found....

Mike Foster from NZ, a serious student of our BMD records came here some years ago and was granted exceptional permission to examine the records at Southport.

He publihsed a book 'A Comedy of Errors'. I can't recall his estimate of the total number of errors, perhaps it was a million, maybe more. His site is well worth a look at and I see he's now followed up with another book.

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/mikefost/

One wonders, with errors of this magnitude how many may have been deprived of inheritances - or wrongfully gained them for example, to say nothing of disappointed family historians, or those misled by the woeful state of our records.
I imagine the cost of carrying out a proper revision is so great it will never be attempted.