RootsChat.Com

FindMyPast has a "other records with the same name" feature at the bottom of a transcript/scan of original image, which like Ancestry hints, has to be taken with a pinch of SAXA and checked.

Also RootsWeb will be another site which will have trees with errors. I used to upload my PAF to there 20 years ago.

I found the birth reg of a grandparent's cousin who I know through other records was born in early January 1932, but the birth reg first appears in the births registered in the April, May, June quarter of 1932. So registered after 3 months at least.

I am always intrigued by the "Births registered in, January, February and March" writing at the top of the pages in the birth entries for the first quarter of the respective years, knowing how 6 weeks was at least recommended to register a birth, and wondering how many of the births took place in the last 2 months of the previous year. I would say about 30% to 40% of births registered in say, the first quarter of 1945, took place in late 1944. This probably means to buy an actual downloadable version of their birth cert through the GRO website will be available in 2045 or 2046.

A distant cousin was born on 1 Dec 1928 in London, and his birth appears in "Births registered in, January, February and March 1929". I looked at 2 of the other 5 entries on the page, and two of them were born in late and late-ish Nov 1928, so the births were likely registered in early Jan 1929. Another tree on Anc has the distant cousin as being actually born in 1929, using the quarter in which the birth was registered. I found the 1 Dec 1928 DOB for Andrew from 1939 register.

My step 3xgreat gran's death was registered in the first quarter of 1929. I got the cert from the GRO website downloadable feature and found that she died on 31 Dec 1928, and registered 2 Jan 1929. Other trees have her as dying in 1929, but probably only because they have not obtained the death cert yet. I added the correct year of death, as it was very very late 1928.

I have a great, great aunty baptised in a rural Suffolk village after her father died a few months earlier, and the baptism lists both parents, but not that the father is now deceased. Whereas I have seen some baptisms which can note "father deceased" or "mother now deceased".

If a widow/deserted wife was having children out of wedlock she may have claimed the deceased/runaway husband was the father to save face, and this will not usually be noted in the baptism. The vicar just wrote down whatever he was told, and she may have said "The dad is away at sea, or away in the army". Or the vicar may not even have questioned why one parent was not there.

99.9% of baptisms do not state if the parents were present at the baptism.

I think Thomas Barnes birth was registered in Stepney in the last quarter of 1880, mother's maiden name Bishop. Vol 1C, page 457. So Catherine's maiden name was Bishop.

In 1881 Catherine Barnes says she was born Pimlico, London, but in 1891 she says Oxford, Oxfordshire. I think Oxford is correct. A Catherine Emily Bishop birth was registered in Oxford in 1856, mmn Wilkes. Catherine Emily Bishop wed Robert Barnes in 1878 in Limehouse, or Mile End.

I found Catherine in the 1861 census in Stepney aged 4 born Oxford, child of Thomas and Matilda Bishop. According to 1861, she had a brother born in Paddington, and another sibling born St George East about 1858. So Catherine grew up in London.  Ironically her mother Matilda Bishop (Nee Wilkes if you go by Catherine's 1856 birth reg) was born in Bletchingdon, Oxfordshire, where some of my lot came from. Small world.