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Author Topic: Register of Births - Reference Number  (Read 810 times)

Offline scrumsrus

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Register of Births - Reference Number
« on: Saturday 06 February 21 00:11 GMT (UK) »
This record on Scotlandspeople.gov.uk has the reference number has the letter A between the parish number and the page number. Another researcher has this individual listed as being Adopted, which made me wonder if the A in the reference number had a specific meaning, maybe Adopted or Amended or am I reading too much into this and it's just a coincidence? 

The parish only had a population of ~300 people at the time so I don't think it's a book number, I've not come across a letter in the reference before, can you shine a light on this for me?

Surname: PEAT
Forenames: GEORGE TODD
Gender: M
Year: 1923
Ref: 418/A 2
RD Name: Creich (Fife)
Direct surnames: Stuart, Lowes, Welsh/Welch, Purvis, Robertson, Scott, Halkerston, Middlemoss, Stothert, Brown, Arnot, Mather, Wilson, Kirkaldy, Hamilton, Geggie, Wood, Huntley, Parker, Pigas,  Hunter, Close, Douglas, Young, Robb, Hannah, Fraser, Brydon, Hill, Harrison, Paterson, Hall, Bell, McQuaker, Edgar, McKeand, Bruce, Cumming & variants of all the above and many other less direct relatives.

Offline scotmum

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Re: Register of Births - Reference Number
« Reply #1 on: Saturday 06 February 21 00:18 GMT (UK) »
It is just the reference for that Parish.  Creich (1893-1955)   Fife 418A . Previously it was  Creich (1855-1892)   Fife 418.     Some others have a letter as well as numbers too.

See:

Quote
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Offline Forfarian

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Re: Register of Births - Reference Number
« Reply #2 on: Saturday 06 February 21 17:01 GMT (UK) »
Quote from: scrumsrus on Saturday 06 February 21 00:11 GMT (UK)
This record on Scotlandspeople.gov.uk has the reference number has the letter A between the parish number and the page number. Another researcher has this individual listed as being Adopted, which made me wonder if the A in the reference number had a specific meaning, maybe Adopted or Amended or am I reading too much into this and it's just a coincidence.
It's the result of changes in the registration system. From 1855 until 1892 the number for Creich RD was  just 418, but from 1893 until 1967 it was 418a.

The RD of Culross then became 418b from 1893 until 1967. Culross was alphabetically next after Creich in Fife, but it couldn't be given the number 419, because that had belonged to Cults (Fife) since 1855, so they tacked an extra letter on to make Creich 418a, and made a new number for Culross 418b, with a different letter.

Before 1892 Culross was RD No 343, because it was orginally in Perthshire, but there were various reorganisations of boundaries in 1890-ish, and I take it that Culross was 'moved' into Fife because Clackmannanshire lies between Culross and the rest of Perthshire.

There are lots of similar examples all over the country.

So nothing whatsoever to do with adoption!
Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.
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