GRO put Birth and Death indexes online

Mother's maiden name = "-"

I would recommend caution in making assumptions about the significance of a missing mother's maiden name. It may mean nothing more than that the transcriber found the maiden name illegible. There are of course many other reasons as well.
 
I saw on another forum that the absence of a mother's maiden name may be because it hasn't been "data captured". So it might mean an illegitimate child, or it got missed...
 
Or in Jamaica, it often means the mother was a black servant who had a child sired by her master. Yet I am now back into some fascinating mid 1700's baptisms of both slave and "freed slave" ones where I get the full name of father and mother and their colour and servitude state. No church named at the top but very definitely Church of England!! No marriages to speak of and some deaths. Must speak to my Jamaican mentor Dorothy Kew and get her input.
 
PeterG said:
I would recommend caution in making assumptions about the significance of a missing mother's maiden name. It may mean nothing more than that the transcriber found the maiden name illegible.
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A very good point. My g g grandparents (Taylor) had 12 children between 1846 and 1869 and the mother's maiden name field has enabled me to find 11 of the birth registrations. The 12th registration, in 1849, has also been found, but simply because it is the only entry for that year where the mother's maiden name field is blank.
 
PeterG said:
Mother's maiden name = "-"
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This was in the LostCousins newsletter:
"However the new indexes have a dash (-) in the mother's maiden name section if the parents of the child were not married, even if the father's name is shown on the certificate."
 
Well, I finally got in to the site and thought I would try my maternal grandmother... HA! I can find all her siblings, but not her!! I cross checked with ancestry records and they have information, but don't show her page When I put their page # and vol. in the search I still get " not found " Story of my life... :mad:
 
Did you put a place Sue? I originally put 'Tunbridge' as is in FreeBMd it was refused but when I entered 'TONBRIDGE' voila!
I think less is adequate.[enter button really does not work here I shall now hit on 'post reply'] :oops: Another thought, here have been times when wrong district no. or page no. have been listed on FreeBMD /Ancestry. try leaving that out & just give her dates.
 
Sis said:
This was in the LostCousins newsletter:
"However the new indexes have a dash (-) in the mother's maiden name section if the parents of the child were not married, even if the father's name is shown on the certificate."
Click to expand...

That doesn't explain why my g g grandmother's maiden name appears on all the registrations, except the one for her second eldest child.

Ma-dotcom said:
Did you put a place Sue? I originally put 'Tunbridge' as is in FreeBMd it was refused but when I entered 'TONBRIDGE' voila!
I think less is adequate. Another thought, here have been times when wrong district no. or page no. have been listed on FreeBMD /Ancestry. try leaving that out & just give her dates.
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In my experience, less is definitely better. The births for one family were all registered in Aston, but they were only found when the district name was omitted. I've also found it helpful to check the "sounds like" boxes against all the given and family names. Great aunt Lily, mother's maiden name Matthews, was registered as Lilly, mother's maiden name Mathews, while my Davis family were registered as Davis or Davies.
 
Just in case you was wondering 'Will the indexes be extended to include marriages?'

Also from LostCousins newsletter:

"The simple answer is NO - the new indexes we're seeing now have been constructed using data that was collected as part of the DoVE (Digitisation of Vital Events) project that was abandoned because of mounting costs nearly a decade ago."

"However, if we're very, very lucky, the increase in certificate orders resulting from this might leave the GRO with a surplus, and since they are not supposed to make a surplus they'll have to spend it somehow!"
 
Was having a knock at the Lost Cousins claim Sis, most definitely not you. :angel: If funds ever allow, I might order a copy of the certificate out of curiosity.
 
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Ma-dotcom said:
Did you put a place Sue? I originally put 'Tunbridge' as is in FreeBMd it was refused but when I entered 'TONBRIDGE' voila!
I think less is adequate.[enter button really does not work here I shall now hit on 'post reply'] :oops: Another thought, here have been times when wrong district no. or page no. have been listed on FreeBMD /Ancestry. try leaving that out & just give her dates.
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I tried everything... even just a last name as she had 3 forenames and at different times was called by at least 2 of them. I have her baptism and on Ancestry it says one page #, but takes you to another page that has a Florence Henson...not her as I put that one with that page # in and got a different place and different Mother's surname. Grandma's siblings are all there, including her older brother and sister born a year or so later. Also the deaths of the 3 siblings and her mother , all from diptheria in 1893 are there. Does someone want to try?
Florence Beatrice Mary Henson, ( usually known as Beatrice) born Hampstead, Oct.11, 1882, baptised Jan. 14, 1883 Her mother's maiden name was Powell...
 
Okay I tried Leicester & Melton Mowbray as on FreeBMD- but with yours missing
Suggest you reply here, found at bottom of page where results are found.....
Noticed a problem with a record in the GRO Indexes?
You can report it to GRO and help us improve the quality of information available.
:(
 
Chimp said:
Well I found her on FreeBMD

Births Dec 1882 Henson Florence Beatrice M Hampstead 1a 662

but she's definitely hiding on the GRO site.
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Since I find it hard to resist a challenge, I tried looking on the GRO site - also without success. I then tried a few random common surnames, but didn't come up with any results at all for Dec qtr 1882 in Hampstead.

What I haven't done is get a list of say 10 actual entries for that quarter from FreeBMD so as to check all of them. I don't have time now, but maybe someone else would like to try? If none of them appear, then it looks like an error at the GRO site that needs to be reported.
 
I have checked GRO for all the births in the December qtr 1882 that show for Hampstead. Vol. 1a Page 662 on FreeBMD

Ash Gerald Beaumont
Austin John William G T
Clarke Alice Maud
Henson Florence Beatrice M
Johnstone Arthur Townsend
Jones Elizabeth Hampstead
Preston Margaret Elizabeth
Roth Edwin Seymour
Swift Rose Edith
Uzielli Theodore John
Vaughan-Jones Elizabeth

I have tried the search with:-
  1. Just surname
  2. Surname & Forename
  3. With Hampstead
  4. With Vol.
  5. With Page No.
  6. With Vol., Page No. & Hampstead
  7. Selecting Male instead of Female and vice versa
  8. Selecting death instead of birth
Zilch, nothing, not one of them show.
 
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