Can we believe anything we read on BMD certificates

[weste]

My uncle registered my gran and grandfathers deaths. Unfortunately he got in a muddle and he gave wrong addresses for where grandfather was born. It can't be amended unless we find grandfathers birth cert. we''ve had difficulty with that one. There was a surname change certainly by the time they came to Walsall.we know the surnames involved and they are common in the areas involved! My grandfather never found his cert. the royal artillery attestations give an area so we are trying again.

[Guy Etchells]

This is an interesting concept. How do we as researchers trust any information as correct?

We don't accept any information at face value, written or verbal.
Always check all information with other sources look for other information to confirm or refute the original source of information.
Try to find three or more alternative sources.
Alternative sources means other types of sources not for instance other trees that contain the same information but compare census entries with birth and/or baptism information, electoral rolls, school rolls, burial registers, wills etc.

When looking at a source think -
Where did this information come from?
Is it likely to be accurate?
If so how accurate?
Can I access the original source of this information?

Take for instance an English census. If we disregard the 1911 census all earlier census are enumerators transcripts of returns and may contain errors in the copying process.
The Address is likely to be accurate
Names, Relationship and Condition is likely to be accurate but may include pet names and obsolete or terms where the meaning has changed.
The ages are likely to be inaccurate as age was not as important in the past as it is today and memory fails.
Occupation may use (now) uncommon terms and may only be a temporary occupation or false.
Place of Birth could easily be a wild guess.

Cheers
Guy

[panda40]

For many years I searched for my Great grandfathers brother who was listed on the census returns as John. I could find no birth records that matched the information given on the census returns. I only found out the correct information when the vaccination records became available. On these records his name was recorded as Richard John. The family called him John so not to confuse him with his father Richard. The vaccination records also identified a unknown daughter born between census years that I was not aware of. Sadly she died. These are the type of records you can use to substantiate your research. They also give the name of the person who brought the child to get vaccinated.
Regards panda

[weste]

Thanks panda, it's something I've considered trying. Also confirmation and school records. There's a few other complications as well. Waiting for some certs. In respect to school records I was told closed for 100 years but may be able to do freedom of info. I spoke to someone at the local archives. The problem with that is, his mom would have died near the time he started school. The mom and dad were n't married  supposedly but pretended they were on documentation and it was 1904 so no mothers maiden name to help on anything. Slowing chipping away. Different religions to contend with, mother was catholic. I might tackle the birmingham diocese after new year and later the Yorkshire one. Granddads half brother was called Charlie and his father Charles but Charlie has an alias James with a different surname!

[pinefamily]

As a general rule of thumb, I agree with everything you listed, Guy. However, in the example I gave, if not for "living memory", I would have probably assumed that my grandmother had been born a Dedman; yet every other record for her gives her maiden name as Lindquist. Sometime I feel our research methods, as strong as they are, can still lead us astray, if false information has been given.

[Guy Etchells]

As a general rule of thumb, I agree with everything you listed, Guy. However, in the example I gave, if not for "living memory", I would have probably assumed that my grandmother had been born a Dedman; yet every other record for her gives her maiden name as Lindquist. Sometime I feel our research methods, as strong as they are, can still lead us astray, if false information has been given.

I agree pinefamily but even (perhaps, especially) living memory should be checked.

For example I inherited a pedigree, produced by my grandfather, that gave no inkling that he had been married previously and that he only married my grandma (A quiet registry office wedding at a distant location after his first wife died) when their 4 children were between 12 & 20 years old.

Cheers
Guy

[larkspur]

 "but has any of us EVER seen a birth certificate where the mother is a married woman and the father's name appearing on the certificate is anyone other than her husband??"

My great grandmother registered her son four months after her marriage to my great grandfather.
"James Cant or Ancliffe Mother Margaret Cant domestic servant married 14th May 1892 to George Henry Ancliffe gardener, who she declaires is not the father of the child." nothing if not honest.....

[Nanna52]

"but has any of us EVER seen a birth certificate where the mother is a married woman and the father's name appearing on the certificate is anyone other than her husband??"

My great grandmother registered her son four months after her marriage to my great grandfather.
"James Cant or Ancliffe Mother Margaret Cant domestic servant married 14th May 1892 to George Henry Ancliffe gardener, who she declaires is not the father of the child." nothing if not honest.....

Yes.  Living person, so say no more.

[pinefamily]

As a general rule of thumb, I agree with everything you listed, Guy. However, in the example I gave, if not for "living memory", I would have probably assumed that my grandmother had been born a Dedman; yet every other record for her gives her maiden name as Lindquist. Sometime I feel our research methods, as strong as they are, can still lead us astray, if false information has been given.

I agree pinefamily but even (perhaps, especially) living memory should be checked.

For example I inherited a pedigree, produced by my grandfather, that gave no inkling that he had been married previously and that he only married my grandma (A quiet registry office wedding at a distant location after his first wife died) when their 4 children were between 12 & 20 years old.

Cheers
Guy

In my case, the woman who relayed the story to me was present when the older Dedman girls teased the younger Lindquist girls about being "b*****ds". Yet only three of theLindquist's were registered as such; the oldest two as Dedman's, and the next one not at all. And there is only 2 years difference between the youngest Dedman, and the oldest Lindquist, so why use "another" name?
But in reference to your inherited pedigree, I was separately told how we were related to nobility and had a general in the family. There was a family of the same name with the right connections, but it wasn't ours.
It's what makes our hobby so interesting.

Cheers,
Darren