Can anyone tell me about UK Birth Certs (from the 1960's) please?

[54isanopendoor]

Just looking at my Birth Cert
(a 'certified copy', watermarked, looks original? )

Qu: 1: It is filled out by the Registrar, not signed by either parent so would this be the original or a copy? Can I see the actual Register online for free ??

Qu: 2: My Mother was married, but is listed not in her legal married name but in the name of the details of 'my Father' ie as someone else's wife & gave their address too. So she gave false info. I wondered if this affects it's legality?

does anyone know please? OR how I could find out?

have you tried the free BMD website? www.freebmd.org.uk/search

Usually with birth certificates, you have the full one, and a short version. Assuming you were born in hospital, often the registrar calls into the post natal wards and issues the certificates, if a mum is married the father is always assumed to be the husband.

You could buy a copy of the original certificate. What are you concerned about OP, do you need this information for something specific. I managed to find an marriage certificate on Free BMD that I desperately needed for a very specific reason.

good luck

I have the one given to my Mum when I was 3 days old in the 60's
It's typed It shows my Mom as her married name and then formerly known as and her maiden name and the address for Mom shows the house where we lived as a family
It says in one box signature of imformant has my mothers name and same address, but no signature, so she must have signed in the big book at the registration office.
Only signature is the registrar of births and deaths.

You could buy a copy of the original certificate.

If OP has a certified copy, she has a copy of the original.

The General Register Office (if OP is in England or Wales) are best able to answer queries. GRO That page also has links to the offices for Scotland and NI.

Hi @LouisRenault @PattyMelt @Roselilly36

thanks.
My Mother has recently died & it turns out she told some tall tales...
(there is a question of who my Father might be)

My copy is handwritten but all filled in by the Registrar.
I thought I'd once had a copy with my Mother's & Father's signatures on but can't find another & am now wondering if I am imagining it? (perimenopause has a lot to answer for...!)

I looked on that site & found my entry in a list, but can't see the actual Cert.
I may need to try again / contact the GRO (& pay?)

I'm pretty sure your parents don't sign the birth certificate. On a marriage certificate both parties sign, but not birth certificate. It's just the Registrar who fills it in.

My husbands is hand written born same place as me one month earlier. His has same info, no parent signatures, only the registrar

Im a 60s baby. Mine is handwritten with both my DPs names. Only the registrar signed it.

Thanks ...
I just wondered.
My Mother told stories about '2 men turning up at the nursing home claiming to be the Father' (oh yes...)
She said that my 'real' Father signed the Cert.
Only, he didn't if no signatures?

So would the Registrar have filled in a particular male name if only my Mother was there to say so? I was born in Jan. Registered in March. 'Father' died April so can hardly ask. It seems batshit crazy but my Mother recently died & some of her stories are proving not true so maybe this very Big one was not true either?

The copy you are given is a called a copy because it is literally a certified (filled in and signed by the the Registrar) copy of the entry in the Register. The Register is the big book which remains the property of the Register Office and forms the official record. The certified copy is an official birth certificate, given to the parent(s) who registered the birth.

So you have the ‘original’ of your mum’s BC. It’s just called a copy because it was copied by the Registrar out of the big book (like the one you sign at your wedding - you are also given a copy of that as your formal marriage certificate).

I was about to post what @LaFeuilleMorte has about the copy.

If you are really not sure who your dad is
A DNA test with some like ancestry.
You will might need help using the test to work out who your dad is . And there are loads of Facebook groups out there that can help

Mine hasn't parents signature ( I have the copy my mother was given).

When I registered my son in 1978 I wasn't married. I could only put my sons fathers name on it if he was there at the time to verify he was the father. I also used his father's surname so in my part it says -

Surname A also known as Surname B

Could it be this is what happened. Did your 'Father' claim you so that his name is on the certificate.

For the man to be entered on the register he would have had to be present and to sign the actual register, not the certificate.

The Registrar would enter the details given by the informant(s); no marriage certificate would be required - to give untrue information was to commit perjury.

@TellingBone OK. So Registrar would only have written his name if he was actually there to confirm he believed I was his child ?

Mother committed perjury re her surname possibly as she claimed to be married to one man (who was married to someone else) & living at his address when she was actually legally married to another man & was (also?) living at his address too. Ironically, when I later legally changed my christian name in my 20's (to put clear blue water between then & my horribly abusive childhood) she went loco.

I believe that to be the case, yes. Can't find it now, but this information was given by a former Registrar on one of the genealogy websites.

I wonder if it might have been that your mother and this chap had got together and he had vowed to treat the child [you] as his own. And this was one way of expressing that promise.

I know someone born in 1959 who has the wrong Fathers name on her birth cert. Her Mother was still married and as the actual Father was not present she put her Husbands name down.

He would have had to have been present.

As your Mother said as there is the possibility of more than one man being your Father then DNA is the only sure way.

@TellingBone @Adversity

It was the other way around.
My Mother was married. With a son.
She then started an affair.
I was apparantly, (I discovered age 16) the 'result'. That mans name is on my birth cert. She is listed as his wife (she was not, someone else was) & living at his house (she was not). Two men turned up at the birth. One is now dead, 1 is now 88 so I am not keen to ask him for DNA. My Brother would refuse (he is set to inherit quite a bit if I am not his 'full sister') so I am not sure that would work.

Is this about the inheritance then OP?

Is your brother likely to deny you're his half-sister in order to get his hands on all the dosh? I'm not sure whether this chap signing the register or not would have any relevance in such a legal dispute.

Given all the above information and the fact that the Registrar did sign your birth certificate ...........maybe the Registrar is the man who is your father (ha, ha)...

There is no such thing as an 'original' certificate. The original is what is written in the register itself by the registrar.

Every paper certificate is a copy of the original record in the register. That's why they say 'certified copy' on them - even the one you get given at the time of registration.

As your mother was married when you were registered, there would have been no need for your father to attend to have his name on your birth certificate. It was assumed (and still is) that the child is a child of the marriage. Of course she told the registrar a big porky about who she was married to, but I don't think she'd have been required to prove her marriage. So neither her real husband, or the affair man, would have been needed at the registration. (Its only where the mother is unmarried that the father needs to attend to be named. Famously Ed Milliband didn't turn up to register his first born so is not named on his birth certificate.)

@TellingBone
No. It's about knowing who my Father was.
Due to My Mother's lies. Some just being discovered now at her death.
Hence me digging out my Cert after so many years & re-looking at it.

My Brother would not be prepared to help with DNA as he has a financial interest not to which is why I mentioned inheritance.

@mrsjoyfulprizeforraffiawork - er, this is quite painful for me actually (prob was for my Mother at the time, but unfortuantely I got to carry consequences)
And as the Registrar was a woman than that is at least not a possiblity.

I see. Then the birth certificate route, as you've seen, is no help to you. People can and do lie.

I don't know if you are able to get something like a hair from the man that's still alive and at least rule him out via DNA? I'm at sea as to the ethics and potential cost of such a procedure though.

I think I recognise that this is just a part of the very difficult backstory. It would be so much simpler if it was kept to the one post. DNA is the only way you'll discover the truth and have any chance of inheriting under intestacy unless your (step)dad writes a will. Your mum was wrong to do all that she did to you, and your (half)brother is cut from the same cloth. I hope you find the answers you need and can come to peace with it.

@titchy

Ah!!! this is the bit I'm trying to establish -

So, if my Mother was married - which she was - would the Registrar simply have accepted the Mrs X name that was given & then written in Mr X as the Father even if he wasn't there ??? So, all 'standard' except that Mother gave a different married name therefore that different Father was assumed ???

I did wonder why there was a 2m gap between my birth & the Registration
(tho perhaps that is common, I don't know?)
My Mother would have had a job giving a different surname if the Registrar had come around to the Nursing Home given the kerfuffle that happend there, by all accounts (it's a small gossipy town so no doubt eyebrows were raised in 1960s)