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Hi all I recieved a birth cert for my nans youngest brother today and the wierdest thing is same mother but different father the boy was registered as Daniel Browning mother Kate Browning formerly pickett and the father is a David Bovis? any ideas on y this would be i cant understand why the boy is a browning yet father bovis and kate and david both are informants. (camberwell 1931)

they wernt married, a lot of people lived in sin then.xxx

yes but the thing is kate was already married and her husband didnt die until 1946 she died 1933 and on her death it states wife of george browning. Kates married name was browning her maiden pickett yet the boy was registered Browning but would of thought should be bovis. Plus both people registered the birth.

Well, maybe Kate had had a fling with the child's father, and her husband did not want to be registered as the boy's father? Maybe her husband had left her. Were there any more children - and of what parentage? If the parents weren't married, then I guess the child would take the woman's surname. Fascinating but a real puzzle. Hope you find out! XX Jacquie

there was children previous all with same mother and father my nan was born before this guy but i cannot find her birth at all. There would of been one after but kate had a abortion and died of septiceamia

Hi As Jacquie says what if she were separated from her husband and had a fling with this Bovis bloke. Have you checked to make sure she didn't register the birth as Pickett or Bovis as well. I have heard it has been known to happen!! Maybe she was hedging her bets good luck Laura

doesnt appear to be reg as pickett aswell would of thought seen as david was at the registration would want his son to be his name wierd

am a bit confussed why would he of been registered in two names i ahve never come accross that before

what i cant understand is what would of been the boys surname? what would he now be known as?

Well I am absolutely shocked at this posting!! I've just looked at my 2 childrens birth registers and there they are twice!! You learn something new every day!! Thanks (sorry for butting in)

That must mean my daughter will be posted twice as me and my partner are not married cannot check as she born 2005

Seems very lightly, so use the same(ish) situation with this one.

have just looked at the birth for my neice whom was also born out of wedlock she too is under 2 surnames do you think it will be same certificate for both?

be interesting if, afetr all this, your nan is a BOVIS too!

Have checked Jess cannot see her at all under Bovis i too thought that well hoped. recieved a cert today that could of been my nan under Brown but definetly not. Shame though.

I'm sure the certificate will be the same as they have the same ref no. It will be as registered on the day. Tracy

When the parents have different surnames, as in this case, the birth is entered in the INDEX twice (but only appears once in the Register). This is because the Registrar has no way of knowing what surname the child will choose to use in later life - both names in this case are correct. OC

This is something we have but cannot work out. We have a Mary Ann Page born 1842 Liverpool. Her mother is Elizabeth Page and father Philip Brew. Now, they are in the same house in 1841 but theres a Hannah Brew which i presume is his wife. Our Mary Ann Page says on her marriage cert that her father is Thomas Page?? But the only birth cert that matches her age is the 1 above!! We cannot find her on the 1851 but we find Hannah living with a Moss family(Mary Ann later marrys a Moss). Hannah dies in 1866 but we cant find her on the 1861. Need help and reassurance for this!! Alison

Alexandra, it means that the boy's parents were who it says on the certificate, and they were not married to each other, but the father did acknowledge the child as his, and don't forget that divorce was not as easy in those days as it is now, so they would not have been able to marry each other if Kate could not get a divorce from her husband. David had to go along with Kate to register the birth if he wanted his name on the certificate as the father, which he obviously did. As for the surname, the full birth certificate does not specify the child's surname (though I was reminded the other day that the short certificate does), but the index will often list a child whose parents are not married to each other under all the possible surnames so that he/she can be found in the index no matter what surname he/she uses in later life. It doesn't mean that there is more than one actual certificate. Alison, I'm not sure what 'reassurance' you want. Well, firstly, you can't assume that Hannah is the wife on the 1841 census as she could be a sister or some other relative. Secondly, I'm afraid that children were born out of wedlock or as a result of affairs in the past as well as nowadays, and it is very rare for there to be no such children in a family tree! Kate.

http://home.clara.net/dixons/Certificates/indexbd.htm is a very useful site written by a registrar with information about what is on a cert and she says: 'The child will take its surname from that of father in Column 4 where the parents were married and from mother in Column 5 if they were not married and fathers name is not entered. The child could take either surname if it was a joint entry and both mother and fathers surnames are shown but are different. ' nell