Birth Certificate Details Online

[Cerrone12]

Hello,
I'm new - be gentle with me.

I know I've not got much patience so it's probably me, but when searching online birth certificates I'm getting that little information I can't definitively say I've got the right person. Instead of the search throwing up mother and father, all I appear to be getting is the mother's maiden name - not even her married name at the time of birth/registration. So how can I narrow down the search without trying to get hard copy versions of all the possibilities it might be?

[snoopysue]

Hello,
I'm new - be gentle with me.

I know I've not got much patience so it's probably me, but when searching online birth certificates I'm getting that little information I can't definitively say I've got the right person. Instead of the search throwing up mother and father, all I appear to be getting is the mother's maiden name - not even her married name at the time of birth/registration. So how can I narrow down the search without trying to get hard copy versions of all the possibilities it might be?

That's the standard info for births after september 1911 (before this the mother's maiden name wasn't included). If the parents were married then the mother's current surname would be the same as the child's in most cases.
If the child was baptised, then church records may give you more, although bare in mind that a child may have been baptised a long time after the birth, in some cases years after.

[Cerrone12]

Thanks Sue.

Where would I go then to find the name of the father?

[peterd]

Thanks Sue.

Where would I go then to find the name of the father?

if its after 1911 you should have surname and mother maiden name so you will have to try to find a marriage

if its before 1911 try to find the person in the census as you will have there name approx age and area where registered

where registered might be some distance from where there living

[SRD]

If you've got the (post 1911) Birth Index record which holds something like the following info:
Births Registered in September 1961
Name: SMITH, Catherine Elizabeth
Mother's Maiden Name: EMERY
District: Sturminster
Vol: 10
Page: 24
and the child's surname is the same as the Mother's name then it might mean the mother was unmarried and didn't register a father, it might mean that the mother's maiden name was the same as her married name or it might mean that the mother's maiden name was unknown by those registering the birth. Checking siblings' records may give the info required.

If the records are pre 1911 then the chances are the child was born out of wedlock. Sometimes the father's name was used as a middle name.

[gardener]

This link is quite good www.devonfhs.org.uk/masterclass-finding ... icates.pdf

If you want to post the information which you already have then perhaps someone can be more specific with information. If it is for a living person or you don't want to post the detail openly then you could send one of us a private message - I'm sure that we would all help if we could.

If you are using FreeBMD then there should be the baby's surname (and first name) and also the mother's maiden name (after mid-1911). This can be useful if you want to look for siblings because you can search for children born with the same surname/mother's maiden name combination.
Sometimes things get complicated if the parents were not married and I have seen some examples where siblings were registered quite haphazardly with the surname of either the mother or the father or both, but clearly all one family. So if you know the surname and are expecting a certain maiden name then it might be worth searching using those (no given name) to see if there are any births registered in that way in a similar area or year.