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Attended a baptism on Sunday. Sad story, two small children, father - trouble with drugs, violent, restraining order, etc. so no father's name in baptism register. Just wondered if father's name is compulsory on birth certificate? There must be cases where the father's identitiy is in doubt, but just wondered about the legal side of things.

I think Bob is right. There are loads of Old Testament names encountered in the 18th and 19th centuries. When church attendance was the norm, exposure to biblical names would have been widespread and you can find a lot of names like Obadiah, Hepzibah as well as the classic Ruth and Esther. A much better test of Jewishness is the surname and even then that is not conclusive. IIRC for many centuries there were few if any Jews in this country so when they did arrive, they brought surnames with foreign origins (Goldberg, Levy, Marx etc.)

I'd be tempted just to keep your theory at the back of your mind and not to let it get in the way of your research. If it turns out to be right, so much the better, but on the balance of probability it may not be and researching with an open mind is so much more productive.

Thanks for all the help guys, this is a really off the wall query that I doubt will be common. Michael's kind offer will keep my mum ticking over whilst I work on her to get a new computer. Although, given that the last one I gave her lasted nearly 15 years, that might take some effort.

Probably worth pointing out that some FHS have parish records available on fiche or CDRom. However, they do depend upon the skill of the person doing the transcribing and  whilst some people are rightly remembered for their high accuracy, that is not always the case. As they are dealing with parish clerks of varying degrees of literacy, we must make allowances, but the key thing is to make your own mind up by consulting the original record.