Birth certificate with pound sign in the name

[eddiebooth]

Good old LSD, from the Latin librum, solidus, denarius

[Gadget]

Again - started to write something, then crossed it out. (That too is numbered as a correction.)

Agree - all numbered as the correction refs

[arthurk]

Some of the following appeared after I posted Reply #6, and it makes what I wrote there appear a bit pointless:

That just leaves the mystery of the + in the father's name column. I wonder if the registrar started to write the father's name and then realised that they weren't married so he couldn't. In which case I'm looking for a man with a name starting with a vertical line.

To which I would now reply, good luck with that. It might also have been a horizontal line that's been deleted with a vertical. Or he might have been starting to write 'Kate' again.

[majm]

It is now just after 3 a.m. and my OH is chatting on phone with an overseas client.  So here I am, reading new replies ...

Yes, now that I read back over this thread there does seem to have been additional words added to that post. 

Not to worry, arthurk,  I am sure your interpretations are correct for that b.c. 

Perhaps the cybersnafflers nicked the ADD or EDIT or similar alert word to show a post had been modified.   

JM .... OH still on phone ... its 3.21 a.m.  I'm going to make a cuppa.

[majm]

I have a 1904 UK birth certificate in which the child's name contains a £ sign. Has anyone seen this before or know what it signifies? The child was illegitimate and born in the workhouse. There are three numbered items on the certificate. I've seen numbered items before where a change is made and a note made at the side of the certificate with the registrar's initials. This certificate follows that pattern. The child's name is given as Charles Kate £Harold. (Following the pattern at the time the name column doesn't include the surname.) Kate has been scored out and numbered 32. Kate is also the mother's name. The £ sign has been numbered 33 although that number might apply to the whole £Harold. The father's name column contains a + and is numbered 34 but it isn't clear what the change was. Maybe it was originally a dash and was changed to a +.

My guess is that the £ sign is an attempt to indicate the name of the father. I've checked in the 1901 census for people in the area with the surname Harold and haven't found any.

The birth registration was six weeks after the birth and made by Kate. Unfortunately, the story ends unhappily. The child died six months later and the cause of death was given as Malnutrition since birth. In the baptism record Kate is described as a Mother's Help (but Domestic House Keeper on the birth certificate) so you'd hope she knew something about looking after babies. I've been struck by how unhappy Kate looks in later photos and I'm guessing this might be part of the reason.

This too.

ADD

Surnames ... i think that dates from 1960s for baby's birth registration. 

JM

[cbowley]

Thank you all for your help. I'm not that worried about finding the father although I'd note that Charles and Harold are not names that crop up in Kate's branch of the family so may well have something to do with the father. More interesting is that Kate found the Workhouse a more appealing option than going back to her parents. The child was Kate's parents' first grandchild. Her father was a merchant clerk so not poor. Kate was back living with them in 1911. She was also in the Workhouse, just for a day, in 1915 after her father died and her sisters returned from Canada with a couple of young children and the house would have been very full. There was something odd going on in that family that had the happy group photographs but also some of the daughters needing to get away at times but finding it hard to survive on their own. I can see similar behaviour in their descendants.

[Ruskie]

Yes, Charles Harold, or Harold Charles could have been the given and middle names of the father …. Alternatively his surname could have been Charles or Harold ….  Or …. none of the above. 

It is interesting to try to work out what happened in families when you see events such as these occurring. Kate may have been disowned by her family due to having a child out of wedlock. She was back home in the 1911 census but there is no way of knowing if that was a long term living arrangement, or if she was just there for a night or two.

Young women and men would have left home to make their own way in the world, but doesn’t necessarily mean there were any issues at home to prevent them living there. On the other hand, there may have been. 

[Ayashi]

In which case I'm looking for a man with a name starting with a vertical line.

I think this might be my new favourite FH remark. I laughed out loud.

[majm]

    

My name starts with a Vertical Line.   It is a Downstroke that I make as part of the Capital Letter, J.

    

JM