Was my Gr, gr, gr grandmother a boy?

[chris_49]

Author Emlyn Williams had a cousin known as Ioan Emlyn (perfectly normal Welsh male forenames) who was born in Liverpool. When he needed a birth cert he was mortified to find he was registered as a girl called Joan Emlyn! See West Derby births, 1902, FreeBMD

[iolaus]

Just got this email back off of Bath registry office

Having pulled and checked the physical Register unfortunately, in this case, BMD is correct stating entry BEA/6/283 is a ‘Henry FIDO,’ Male. I conducted a search under the surname ‘FIDO’ from 1845-1855 there was no Emily in our records.


Argh
This family are driving me nuts, another son they have registered as George then a few weeks later changed their minds and baptised him as another name (his elder brother who died)

[Mowsehowse]

I will get the certificate but if it comes back as Henry, son of George and Hannah on a date shortly before Emily's baptism (their other children are 2-3 weeks old at baptism) where do I go with proving this is actually Emily's and not a brother who is 'missing'

In the early 1990's I used to get information direct from the local registrar's office, and was permitted to look at the exercise books in which the births had been listed.
I noticed a tiny little "p" by two names and enquired what that meant...... it signified TWINS.

[dawnsh]

If Bath haven't done so, you could order from the GRO by using the 'reference not known, option to check what parents names have been given.

Once you enter the year, you then have the option to request a cert for Henry Fido (because that's what the name will be, but you can specify the parents names as George Fido, put the mother down as "Hannah or Anna", both names in the box and her maiden surname.

If there isn't a match, they'll send you a refund.

It's an interesting dilemma if this does turn out to be the child you are looking for.

[iolaus]

Follow up

I got Henry's certificate

HENRY Fido born 14th May 1852 in Woolley
son of George Fido, gardener, and Hannah Fido, formaly Fry

Hannah registered the birth (with her mark) on 15th June 1852

Emily was baptised on 6th June 1852 at All Saints in Woolley

Any ideas where to go from here?  I'm assuming Emily and Henry are definately the same child

[Annie65115]

So if Hannah "made her mark" rather than using her signature, perhaps she was illiterate, and unale to point out the registrar's error to him.

[larkspur]

I agree Annie, also if the Registrar was not a "local" the Somerset accent can be a little tricky- try saying Henry and Emily with one   

[bitzar]

Hi team

Off track slightly, but was Hannah Fry of the Wells, Somerset Fry's?!

Regards

bitzar
Melbourne, Australia.

[dobfarm]

This is going to sound odd but I seem to be coming to the conclusion that my three times great grandmother was registered as a boy and I was wondering if anyone has any ideas of how I could prove (or disprove this)

Emily Fido (she marries as Emma but is baptised Emily) was born around 1852 in Woolley, Somerset according to the census, however shortly after her birth the family move to Bristol

I can't find a birth record for an Emma or Emily (or even any females) in the right area at the right time.  Emily is her parents 7th child so I can't see her being registered under her mothers maiden name of Fry.

She was baptised at All Saints in Woolley on 6th June 1852 - daughter of George Fido and (H)Anna Pinker (Fry)
She married in Bristol registry office on 5th October 1869 - daughter of George

The only 'potential' birth in the right area I can see is in the June quarter of 1852 a little boy Henry Fido (according to Bath BMD his mother's maiden name is Fry)

I can't see this Henry in the baptism records for that area, he is not on a census etc, I can't see a matching death record for him

Could it be possible that Henry is actually Emily?

Try and find todays registration district local register office for Woolly and contact that register office and ask them to check their records for Emily 1851/52