Forest of Dean FHT Forum - Birth Certificate question

Birth Certificate question (reply)

Alan Merryweather — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 12:09:06 +0000

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.

Birth Certificate question (reply)

slowhands — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 10:02:40 +0000

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....

Birth Certificate question (reply)

bertha — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 09:41:44 +0000

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

Birth Certificate question (reply)

Jacqueline Stanford-Melville — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 08:34:18 +0000

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

Birth Certificate question (reply)

slowhands — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 05:53:10 +0000

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

Birth Certificate question

Jacqueline Stanford-Melville — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 02:00:12 +0000

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