Has anyone had to reregister their DC after getting married?

[Darkroot]

First of all, ridiculous, why am I being made to do this?

Secondly, does anyone know if I get their original birth certificates back or are they lost for ever?

Yes it's only really important if there is a large family inheritance or title to pass down.
If Prince William and Catherine hadn't been married when George was born he would be illegitimate and couldn't be heir to the throne. By re-registering he would then legally be legitimate so can be heir.
So for families with important titles to pass down then it's probably a good thing to get done.
For average folk - probably wouldn't make a difference in years to come.

Because the passport form asks if the parents are married. You tick yes. The birth certificate shows the parents are not married.

Of course you can apply for the passport if the parents are not married. Then you'd tick no. Then the birth certificate would match.

I’ve never bothered and we have been married over 11 years now.

It just never seemed important tbh.

Literally takes 20mins. We did it as we changed DDs surname after we were married. Keep both old and new birth certificates

Weirdly my birth certificate and that of my children doesn't say whether the parents are actually married or not on it.
Where is this information actually put on the document? How would they know from just the birth certificate alone?

I remember being told to do this when I registered my second (but it wasn’t mentioned with my first or third). We got married abroad so it wasn’t mentioned then. We never did and they are adults now.

It's still the law.

But I'm pretty sure that's only the case because no-one's got round to tidying it away

You can be fined if you don't do it. £2. So no-one ever bothers to prosecute.

Not the case.

In the Royal family (and perhaps for some other aristocratic titles) legitimated DC don't count.

They're the only circumstances where legitimacy at birth still matters

I never bothered, it's leftover legislation from when it mattered

I've never done it. One child before the wedding and one child after. Apparently the child after has more rights to inheritance, then the child before, if you don't change but I've got a will so that will over ride the law hopefully anyway.

I did it out of guilt that our second was legitimate 😂😂 kept both certificates.

For those with both certificates, how do they look different? Curious.

@meditrina oh I didn't realise Royals didn't count. I've learned something new today 🙂

I didn't realise you were supposed to! I did because DS1 had my surname before I married DH, we took DH's surname on marriage. Being sentimental I also wanted DS to be considered 'legitimate' as we planned to have more DCs. We kept DS's old birth certificate and both certificates look the same apart from the change in surname.

@ArcticSkewer it was really odd actually because we had to give our new jobs and address etc so despite only being a couple of years apart they look very different! You can see how we sorted our lives out in those 2 years 😂😂 (we were quite young!)

Yes we had to do it. Had countless letters and calls about it and could be fined £2😂

Took 20min and mini blondes has new birth certificate saying my married surname now instead of previous surname

Otherwise all the same as she was under daddy's name

It’s not anywhere near as important now as it used to be.

Previously even being on the birth certificate didn’t automatically give an unmarried father parental rights. Marrying the mother did so re-registering the birth was he easiest way to do it.

That doesn’t apply now.

So if you don't change surname it looks exactly the same? I never changed mine anyway, so nothing to see either way. I wonder if there is a 'back room' file that notes you are married? If not, seems even more pointless

I like that you get a totally different job / address though if years later - very random!

Yes I had to do this with DC3 as my other two were born before marriage, although all have the same father and surname. Didn't take long but I did have to buy replacement copies of their new original birth certificates.

The registrar explained that as DC3 was born within marriage she would have more legal standing / claim to any inheritance. Not sure how that works but that's what she said.

Very interesting. I always thought that inheritance would automatically go to the DC equally as they all have the same father on the birth certificate. Surely marriage doesn’t come into it anymore?

Don't worry, it doesn't make a difference these days

The easiest difference to see if that the maiden name box will contain mothers maiden name (even if she doesn't change it) instead of just a line.

There are other subtle differences too - The birth certificate will only be signed by one parent and only show one address.

I did know it was a thing. We didn't do it. I didn't know there was a time limit of 3 months so we've missed that boat by 18 years anyway.

Anyway, it seems ridiculous. My name should appear on DS's birth certificate as it was at the time of his birth. Not what I changed it to at a later date.

My daughter's has a line for my maiden name but I was married. Do you mean they put maiden name twice if unmarried?

Signed by only one - yes, is that because the father has to also sign if not married?

So the new one loses the father's signature?

All very interesting!

But address ... Hmmmm ... mine only has mother's address, as informant. Do they normally have two informants if unmarried? And therefore two addresses? Even if the two addresses are the same?

I never looked in so much detail at a birth certificate before