Genealogy Forum UK

To all ye with greater knowledge than I,
On doing a spot of digging for a mates wife, I've discovered she actually has 2 birth certificates, one long and the other short. I'm trying to discover if this is legal as realistically she could apply for two passports.
All details are identical except the second (short version issued 7 years later) has her with a new father and surname.
Your thoughts would be very much appreciated.
Caretaker1

Its the same cert but different format the short one is always cheaper, when birth certs were used a lot for ID parents info was not needed

the reason shorter version was issued 7 years later is poss mislaid the original and applied for the cheaper version unless here step father adopted her officially that caused a reissue of the certificate

here

https://www.gov.uk/register-birth/birth-certificates

Hi
I have both short and long certificates too. When I was born my dad got the short certificate. Then many years later my mum was doing genealogy and decided to send for the long certificate. It had probably annoyed her for many years that dad took the short one!
Adding to what peterd says, it is also possible that if the parents were not married at the time of the birth then a short certificate was taken, then the parents married later and re-registered the birth and got a long certificate showing the father's details.

After 1918 they could apply for a reissued certificate with the father's name added and child's surname changed.

This was to cater for the large number of "service" babies conceived during the war.

When looking up such a child there will be an asterix next to their entry with a hand written note at the bottom saying where to find the new certificate in the index.

I ordered both for my mother and both are legal and she could have got a passport in either surname.

moved to misc section