Do I need to take DD's birth certificate when I travel abroad?

[VeronicaCake]

Has this happened to anyone else? DH and I have just taken DD (8m) to Paris for the first time. Obviously she has a passport and all three of us are British citizens. Journey out was fine but on way back I was asked to step aside at the Gare du Nord when getting our passports checked and asked lots of questions by someone from the UK Borders Agency. I was told that if I wanted to travel abroad with DD I needed to take her birth certificate with me because DD and I don't share a surname (DH does share her surname of course but he had gone through ahead of us and was standing on other side of passport control wondering what was going on).

DD has my surname as a middle name so it is on her passport, but not as her surname. The guy speaking to me was fairly aggressive in his manner and made a pointed remark about this being why it is a good idea to get married before having a child (I disagree but DH and have been married 6 years anyway).

I've looked everywhere online and cannot find any reference to this as a rule. I also cannot see what carrying her birth certificate in addition to her passport would have achieved. Or indeed what naughty thing they thought I could be up to. Did they seriously think I had travelled to Paris on a British passport in order to abduct a British baby (complete with her own passport) and then return to the UK with her?

When a friend of mine was coming in at Heathrow (friend + her dh + their two DSs) the immigration officer after checking their passports casually looked at the eldest and asked "Is that your dad?" pointing to the dh. I guess they do random checks like that to make sure.

Yes I have had immigration in both UK and Spain ask casual questions like that even though we have the same surname.

It is a good sign that they are being vigilant without being officious.

I've been asked loads of times by immigration people (at Heathrow, Toronto, Newark and Lille, I think) if the DCs are mine - I'm a lone parent with different surname from the DCs, though they do have mine as a middle name.

I now always travel with birth certificates and DH's death certificate, in lieu of a letter from absent parent, which I gather is sometimes asked for. Canada is particularly hot on this, I think, because of American parents taking children over the border during custody disputes.

My G/d 10 has her birth surname, but lives with her Mum & new S/dad.
The ex wants G/ds Dad to agree to her name changing to S/dads to make life easy if/when they have a family.
Is it reasonable to go to such lengths to make foreign travel easy?

Blimey - another thing for me to remember! Though the only time I was travelling with a DC without their father (whose surname they have) I was still breastfeeding, which I suppose is fairly obviously a sign of maternity.

Hi everyone, I joined today so excuse my clumsiness ...
Thanks for the post, found it very useful ...
I am taking my little boy to France for a short holiday without my partner (someone needs to make some $!) and since baby has his surname only I expect the border control to pop the question ...
Will therefore carry a birth certificate and let everyone know what happened once I return.
Child abduction is a huge huge topic in France, making the news with horrible stories on parent separating etc so it doesn't surprise me that they are so uptight about it.
The comment about the marriage is out of order though, I am preparing answers in my head just in case ... first trip abroad with baby sounds promising!

I was nearly prevented from travelling within the uk with ds 1 and 2 because I did not have birth certs. I had my passport as I knew I needed photoid to collect tickets. Wasn't aware I also needed Id for the boys because we don't have the same surname.

Since then I've used their passports for id on internal flights, causing problems when they were out of date, as they had to get that ok'd by manager as acceptable.

Presumably if my ex wanted to abscond with them he'd find it easier because they have the same surname, sigh.

I have a different surname to DC1 and 2 and have travelled all around the world with them and have never carried their birth certificates or been questioned about the different names.
Last travelled with them to the States in October and nothing was said although they are teenagers now so perhaps they are only interested in younger children