Certificates !!!

[kenw55]

I have a tree on Ancestry , and I noticed a hint for my Grandmother I clicked on it and it was for her death.
I realised that the birth date I had was not the same as the birth date the hint gave.

Out with the certificates and her death certificate says Date and place of Birth 5th September 1892 Ventnor Isle of Wight. I had 31st July 1892 ( Grans birthday was one week after Mums we all knew that ).

I then realised I did not have Grans birth certificate so sent off for it.
It has arrived and the birth date is 31st July 1892 , registered 5th September 1892.

Who decides on the birth date on a Death Certificate ? My Mother was the Informant on her Mothers Death Certificate and would have known her Mothers birthday. Somebody has boobed and entered the Registration date instead of the Birth date.

Ken

[Mike Fisher]

A lot of people in those days could not afford the full certificate and had the small thin pink short "certificate" , did you mother give the registrar this to prove your grandmothers date of birth and he read it wrong. Non of my grandparents had the full certificate just this pink slip of paper.

[Lin Fisher]

I'm just wondering if your mother took the birth cert with her when she registered your Grandmothers death and the registrat copied the wrong date off it.

Obviously your mother would be upset and perhaps didn't read the death cert until later, if at all.

My mum and dads marriage cert has her father as Alfred Thomas but his name was Arthur Thomas and they lived on Alfred St. My parents are still alive but I haven't mentioned it as it would upset them. They have been married 60 years and its not bothered them so I am not going to spill the beans.

[kenw55]

My mother has Alzeimers now, when I started my tree my younger sister lent me all the certificates that she was looking after and I photocopied them.
I presume she did not have Grans birth certificate as I did not copy it , so I must have entered the birth date as I remembered it.
I know there is nothing I can do about the death certificate but it is puzzling how the wrong date was entered.
I have a short certificate for my Fathers birth and both the birth date and registration date is on it .

Ken

[Darksecretz]

we have the pink slip for my grandmothers birth, it was folded, and the date was read as 10th Jan 1891, and she always went by that date of birth, it wasnt until years later, way after her death I purchased her birth cert, I was amazed, it said the 18th Jan 1891, upon close scrutiny of the pink slip, the crease was right over the top part of the '8' so therefore looked like a 10. all her life she had gone by the 18th as her b/day, only for me to find she was infact celebrating it on the wrong day!!

[Uncle John]

Who decides on the birth date on a Death Certificate ? My Mother was the Informant on her Mothers Death Certificate and would have known her Mothers birthday. Somebody has boobed and entered the Registration date instead of the Birth date.

What goes on the death certificate is what the informant tells the Registrar. Your mother may have handed the birth certificate to the Registrar, who then wrote down the wrong date.

[kenw55]

So basically it means that unless you have some other proof the majority of certificates are suspect.

Ken

[Guest]

My Father was born 28 October 1921 but as the lady he lived with did not know this and she was the informant his Death Cert just says born 1922
I have quite few with the wrong Birth Dates

[Blackberry]

So basically it means that unless you have some other proof the majority of certificates are suspect.

Yes. Any certificate may contain details that are wrong, whether through genuine error, misunderstanding, lack of knowledge or deliberate lies.

[Uncle John]

So basically it means that unless you have some other proof the majority of certificates are suspect.

Or to put it another way, corroborative evidence adds to the certainty (or reduces the uncertainty).

[Granny Lynne]

My uncle was born on 29 February 1920. When I sent for his birth certificate it had 1 March 1920 on it. The Registrar obviously didn't realise it was a leap year!!

[Uncle John]

So by 1940 he was a little boy of 5 (like Frederic in the Pirates of Penzance).