What records have you gone through twice. ?
Do you have an idea of when and where this mother was born ?
(Copy certificates are obtained from Register Offices, not Record Offices)
It is possible for Register Office staff to make a clerical error, when copying details from the original register onto the blank copy certificate- but very rare in my experience !
Column 5 of the cert. asks for " Name and Maiden Surnameo of Mother".
The cert. does not ask/question whether the parents are married to each other, just mother's "name" and "maiden name" !
If the parents were married to each other, then either one could register the birth of the child ( within 42 days of the birth.)
If the parents were not married, then father's details could be registered with his written or verbal acceptance.
Who registered the birth of child concerned ?
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My grandmother and my grandfather surname G, had a child in late 1800s. They married a year later.
She , nee surname C, registered the birth using the surname G, and signed the register as surname G.
English Common Law allowed her to adopt this "new" surname "by usage", which just happened to be grandad's surname.
Her maiden/birth surname, C, does not appear on the certificate- because she has changed her maiden/birth name " by usage" to that of G, the surname of the man she was probably living with and later marriages.
So technically speaking when she marries her surnam stays the same = G.
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Michael Dixon
