Searching the new GRO indexes - share your tips!

[BettyofKent]

For goodness sake, why do people have to take everything the wrong way!! Yes, I am aware that a heavy German or Polish accent would be difficult for English ears in those days (goodness knows, the Kent accent seems to have caused problems!)

My point was we cannot believe ANYTHING we read, as most of us here know, & to stress this to new people searching.  I had two of the birth certs so took her name as SMIRCH/SCHMIRSH, at least now I have had to query these variations & hopefully find the right name, so I can thank the GRO for that.

Thank you sloe gin, yes, this does shows we do have to think outside the box 

My apologies to you, also, Sloe Gin 

My interpretation was that Betty was "miffed" that there were so many interpretations of her ancestor's surname:

"Even worse with the children of Michael & Bertha COHEN. Seven children with the mother's maiden name different on each one, so I have:
SHMOSH
SCHMIRSH 
SMIRCH
SHMOUSCH 
SCHMAUSCH 
SCHMOUCH 
SCHMAUSCH
I've no idea yet which one is likely to be correct!"

However, she, herself, had to ask on the Europe Board, as to which one might be correct 

[BettyofKent]

Thank you ReadyDale, I'll make a note of that in my tree. You learn something new every day on RootsChat

..... but all of them had their mother's maiden name as BRAHM, but it should have been ABRAHAMS, the A & S having gone AWOL!

Coincidentally, I saw a repeat of the Alex Kingston episode of WDYTYA? a day or two ago, where that exact thing was mentioned. The expert they spoke to said this happened often and they were effectively interchangeable.

[Jon_ni]

The 1901 GRO Name report for Ireland lists just Abram as a synonym of Abraham but John Grenham's website lists the following as utilised in C19 (admittedly Irish) records: Abraham / Abrahams / Abrahamson / Abram / Abrams / Abramson / Ebram / Habram

[clairec666]

Another tip - just because mother's maiden name isn't recorded, doesn't mean it isn't on the certificate. I ordered one which arrived yesterday. It's from the third quarter of 1837, so obviously early days of civil registration. Indexed as FRAZER, Frances Elizabeth, mother's maiden name is a dash.

Here's the info on the PDF:
Name: Frances Elizabeth
Sex: Female
Name and surname of father: William Frazer
Name and maiden surname of mother: Mary Nind
Informant: Mary Frazer, mother, Evesham

So it looks like the mother's maiden name is there, but maybe because it doesn't say "Mary Frazer formerly Nind" it wasn't indexed, but it's easy to work out that it's her maiden name and she is married to William Frazer.