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can I ask a daft question

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  • can I ask a daft question

    Hi
    you all know I have dumb moments (ok most of the time ) but I am looking up a recent line the problem I have is would it be possible to registar a birth under the second name of a double barrel name ie:- Smith Jackson (the name being under Jackson not Smith)

    If so why would this be is it as I guess that the first of the double name (Smith) was not used by the fathers family (in the past ) please help I have found a family that looks like it could be them but not sure if it is right as I am guessing that the intials of this person match what info I have.


    Thanks for your advice


    Laura

  • #2
    I think it's just that the registrar will have written down all the names, but mistakes are made in the indexing if the registrar wasn't sure if he was reading a double-barrelled surname or a middle name and a surname. This is made even more tricky when people decide they would like two surnames but don't hyphenate them, so they look even more like a middle name and a surname.

    I have a lot on my tree who appear in various guises in the indexes - both names and under the second name but with the first surname included in the forenames part either in full or as an initial.

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    • #3
      I've come across a couple of double-barrelled families where the names have been indexed twice. I think they were on FreeBMD (and the Ancestry copy) so I don't know if that is just a FreeBMD thing.
      Uncle John - Passed away March 2020

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      • #4
        I too have family with a double barrell surname.
        Sometimes they are the 1st name sometimes the second and sometimes both
        It really is very confusing.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Uncle John View Post
          I've come across a couple of double-barrelled families where the names have been indexed twice. I think they were on FreeBMD (and the Ancestry copy) so I don't know if that is just a FreeBMD thing.
          Uncle John, if you look at the GRO index itself then you would be able to see if they appear twice on the index or only on FreeBMD. Sometimes you will see two entries on FreeBMD when there is only 1 on the actual index, if two transcribers have transcribed the entry differently from each other.

          Also FreeBMD has two entries instead of one if the index entry has something like "Brown or Smith" for spouse's surname because if it was transcribed as one entry with "Brown or Smith" it would make it impossible to search properly.
          KiteRunner

          Every five years or so I look back on my life and I have a good... laugh"
          (Indigo Girls, "Watershed")

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          • #6
            Also remember that until the early 1900s, there was actually no column on a birth certificate for a surname for the child. The surname was inferred from the father's name.

            If the father was called John Smith Brown, then the child needs to be indexed as Smith AND Brown for reasons explained upthread.

            The index is a finding aid and the more variations or possibilities for a surname, the better, in my view!

            On another thread on here, we have all been laughing at a marriage which is indexed on Lancsbmd SIX times - three variations of the groom's name and three for the bride.

            It took me many years to find the MC of my 2 x GGF. He was using an "either/or" double barrelled name and the GRO had only indexed one of those names. It was a name I didn't know he used, at the time I was searching!

            OC

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