Discussion in 'Any questions?' started by CarolB08, Feb 6, 2019.
I recently had trouble finding a birth certificate for a relative of my husbands Alfred Wood, he was baptised in Terling, Essex on 5th February 1882 so it followed that his birth should have been early January 1882 or Late in 1881 so with that in mind I searched the GRO's online indexes and could find nothing. I scratched my head then searched freebmd with a wider year range, still nothing, the only one showing up was born in the Romford district which when I checked was the wrong Mothers Maiden name. OK I thought lets look at this a different way, so I searched for boys born 1881/1882 in the Witham district with the Maiden name of Blake and up popped one with the right time frame, district and Mothers Maiden name but a different Christian name !!!! He was named Arthur not Alfred.
I decided to take a risk and send for it, all the details were correct except for his name he was born November 1881 but his birth was not registered until 6th February 1882 one day after the baptism I knew was right. I ran this past a cousin of my husbands and he told me that back in 1945 ish Alfred who had emigrated to Canada in 1903 had written home and asked his sister to obtain a copy of his birth certificate for him, no one could find one in the name of Alfred not even the registrars, so they obtained a copy of his baptism and sent that instead.
I do not think his Mother knew of the mistake in his name as she could not read or write and had made her mark on the birth certificate.
Moral never give up and use lateral thinking.
Well done Carol, good thinking.