[Robin Harritt]

Hi Lemon

Registration districts have changed and merged over the years, I suspect at that time Maida Vale might have been Westminster registration district, though I know it was St, Marylebone in the 1970s and probably still is now. London was split up in to lots of small registration districts so if she had the twins at a nearby hosital it could be niether of those.

Only if she could get the father to come along the Register Office and convince the Registrar that they were married would twins appear only under his name. Very unlikely if she was still married to someone else. Very unlikely but not impossible. I But strange things happened at time of war as this was, sometimes if the father was away at war the registration was held up until he returned, sometime kids were completely reregistered in entirely different names etc. But if they were illegitimate then by far the most likely place to find them in the index is under what ever name the mother was going by at the time.

Do let me know if you find them on 1837online, there's a lot more chance of finding them if you can find their names date of bith. Even if you have to wait for the law to change next september. I do hope they were kept together, so many twins were seperated in those days.

All the best

Robin




Robin

[lemonwedgie]

Hi Robin

So, I have my first possibilities - although not registered in London.

Remember I said my grandmother had another child two years previously? Well, she was registered in Pontypridd (my grandmother was welsh) .... so after trawling through Batt & Evans, the nearest I could find was a boy & a girl registered in the 1sr qtr of 1945 in Pontypridd. Anthony P. Evans & Dorothy E. Evans. Funnily enough I wondered if the 'P' after Anthony stood for Paul as my grandmothers youngest son is called Paul Anthony. I am thinking that maybe my grandmother went back home as these are the only near matches I can find.

However, the next step is to order a birth certificate which is where my problem is. They won't allow me to order it online unless I have the actual day they were born, which nobody knows. Do you know if I can find out the day they were born, somehow? What should my next step be?

Many thanx Robin. Hope you are having a good weekend.

Kind regards,
Lemon

[bubelah]

Hi not sure that this is much help, but I am a brit long time citizen over here.

Somewhere I read or heard that if the woman was married the name on the certificate would be that of her husband and he would show as the father. In fact I do believe in the uk that was the case.
I wish I could remember where I read that but know it had to have been on one of the many many search sites across the pond.

Lookup.uk I think has great information you might search their site they could be looking and if they are in uk that is the most popular site.

IM me if I can help

[lemonwedgie]

Originally posted by bubelah


IM me if I can help

Hi Bubelah

I need all the help I can get!!! I have never had to look up birth certificates or the like so this is one giant jigsaw puzzle.

I think you are right though - and I cannot find anything under her married name Batt so I believe they must be under Evans.

As I'm new to all this, the indexes just look like a bunch of names & numbers to me so, I'm having trouble but am determined to solve this.

Thanx for your advice

Lemon

[Robin Harritt]

Originally posted by bubelah

Somewhere I read or heard that if the woman was married the name on the certificate would be that of her husband and he would show as the father. In fact I do believe in the uk that was the case.

That's not necessarily true, I guess you are thinking of is the English common law principle (there is no such thing as UK law were marriage and registration and adoption are concerned, Scotland and N Ireland may be different) that a woman's children are the children of her husband unless some other man steps forward to claim fatherhood. That works for inheritance etc. It is a very old law. I think it was from the days when to fulfil a obligation to produce an heir to an estate and stop it from reverting to the Crown, someone would be brought in (sort of an olden day sperm donor).

I believe that as far as birth certificates are concerned, if she was married, the the name of her husband will appear on the certificate and in the birth index, unless some other man came along to register office to say that he is the father.

Not certain about this but I think that could also be done later by statutory declaration, in which case a child may appear twice in the index, once in the husband's name and once in the father's name, but each entry will have the same entry and volume number.

Certainly if they were originally registered in the mother's maiden name and a man comes forward to sign a statutory declaration then they can appear twice in the index, I know that to be true as it is the case for two of my siblings. But another two appeared just in the father's name even though he and my mother were still not married.

I think, as I said above you can not make any assumptions, you would need to search each possible name until you find them.

Robin

[lemonwedgie]

hi Robin

Regards my above post, I cannot order a birth certificate unless I know the actually date of birth. Is there any way I can find this date out? All the indexes give me is the quarter.

Many thanx.

Kind regards,
Lemon

[Robin Harritt]

Lemon

You can only find out the DoB by looking at the certificate I'm afraid. You may need to order by fax or letter explaining the reason why you are unable provide all the information and why you require the certificates


Suggest you get in touch with these people


http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/co...es_section.asp


Which registration district are they in? It might be easier to deal with the local Superintendent Registrar. Some (but by no means all) will take credit card orders over the phone. But the local registers have different reference numbers from the ones shown in the national index, so they may charge you looking them up, I've never been charged for that but they are allowed to charge.


Robin

[lemonwedgie]

Originally posted by Robin Harritt
Lemon

You can only find out the DoB by looking at the certificate I'm afraid.

Wow, this really is like catch 22. I feel like I am getting nowhere fast! However, Robin, you have given me strength & confidence to move forward and I will. I am just so glad to have someone as helpful as you seeing me through. How on earth did you find your siblings? Did you have a certain system that you used. You really seem to know what you are doing.

Many thanx Robin.

Regards
Lemon

[Robin Harritt]

Lemon said

How on earth did you find your siblings? Did you have a certain system that you used.

I'm in England so I was able to visit the local Register Offices in each of the areas where my siblings were born and get the Registrar to look a various entries for me before getting the certificates for the ones that had my mother as the child's mother on the register.

That is why I am thinking perhaps you will have more luck with a local Superintendent Registrar. I found a wide range of different attitude from local Registrars, one who wouldn't let me have a certificate at all and wouldn't tell me if the mother's name was the one that I was looking for, "because it's to do with adoption". I had another registrar who was very helpful, got really exited and wanted me to call someone from a TV programme, when she found two of them on her register.

Robin