Genealogy Chat

Help!!!!!!! Where do I go now - ordered my great grandfathers birth cert and it arrived yesterday. Only really needed one piece of information on it, the rest was just for confirmation of what I already knew. Problem is the one thing I can't read is the one thing I wanted!!!!!!!!! - his mothers maiden surname. What do I do now? Trudy

Trudy Stop having a tantrum. You can apply to the place you got the cert from to see if they can sort it. Or you can see if you can work out the beginning letter of the name, looking at other words on the cert to help and then see if you can guess likely names and find a marriage between any of them and the father. nell

Is it because of the handwriting or the quality (or lack of it!) on the cert? You could phone Southport and ask them to look up the original for you if it's the cert. Or you could scan it and e-mail it out to some of us lot to have a go at. Or you could trawl the index for that quarter till you find the reference!!!!!!!! (I know someone who once did that!) Janice

Hi Trudy, I ordered a birth certificate a while back and couldnt read the fathers name at all. I telephoned the GRO and they asked me to send the certificate back with details of the problem. They returned it to me very quickly with a further clearer copy. Unfortunately the clearer copy reveiled that what I thougt were words were just a line crossed to show no name. They also confirmed this in a letter. I now believe he was born out of wedlock. Nicky

Thanks everyone - I'll have another look at it later, unfortunately don't have a scanner thats working at the moment, so can't post it out to anyone - but I feel better now I've stamped my feet a bit!!!! Trudy