Family Historian User Group

Hi,

2007-2019 Births have been added to the GRO website.

They have also added births for 1920-1934

Interesting that mother’s maiden name is not included for recent births, similar to date of birth for recent deaths. I think that is a reasonable compromise to allay privacy concerns, rather than the draconian 100 year birth embargo elsewhere in the British Isles.

I never got as far as testing 1920 - 1934, but now realise that Mother's Maiden name missing from these too.
BUT it does give full Forenames instead of initials, so a bit of a bonus

That’s an odd omission, considering mother’s maiden name is widely available elsewhere. I wonder if these are part transcripts salvaged from the ruins of the abandoned Siemens project or the start of a new venture?

I’ve already been through my main database and added a few middle names where I had only initials before.

I also found an interesting discovery- You don't have to enter full forename!

I was searching for a Derick Johnson, and it also threw up people called Frederick johnson.
narrowing it down, it includes everyone whose name includes the search term. So enter D, and it lists everyone with a D in their Forename, even if exact match is selelcted (Doesn't work with surnames though)

I always thought they were a bit picky when it came to spelling, but whether this is new or not, still worth knowing

1920-1934 births are a welcome addition, but every one I have looked at thus far doesn't have the mother's maiden name, an unfortunate omission but I'm sure GRO will rectify that soon. It is great for getting middle names though and the mother's maiden name can be got from the indexes

David,
I think it was deliberate, considering they are less than 100 year old. Does seem pointless though, as Freebmd don’t consider that a problem

Edit: Apparently mothers maiden name will come up if you enter it as a search term, confirming you have correct entry.

Mike,

Thanks for that, just tried and indeed it does which is good to know. It seems a bit bizarre as the mothers maiden name is available on the index pages up to 2006ish on Ancestry and FMP.

Where is it getting the middle names from, when only the initial is recorded on the registration?

Full names are recorded on birth certificates and in GROs records, initials were probably used in the index pages for brevity.

Thanks,
so if I understand this correctly, there are the indexes as used by FreeBMD and Ancestry etc., the actual certificates and then the GRO have a database with the full names on.

Yup, that is how I see it. Which is why the GRO site is so helpful. GRO also gives mother's maiden names for births back to 1837 (unless they were illegitimate in which case it is often blank or the mother's surname) and ages for deaths which are not on the indexes until much later.

See Knowledge Base UK GRO Online Index Search but which needs updating for these latest additions.

Ever since the start of Civil Registration (in 1837 for England & Wales, later for Scotland and Ireland), the GRO have produced printed indexes for public searching. The indexes have only ever been an abstract of key details, although age at death was added in the 1860s and mother’s maiden name around 1913.

Most commercial online sources (and FreeBMD) are based on transcripts of these indexes, not the original registers. In 2005, the GRO initiated a new digitisation project, using the original registers, not the indexes. This was abandoned in 2008, at which point it was well behind schedule.

Roughly half of all the material had been scanned and transcribed, and these records gathered electronic dust for years. They were resurrected for the current GRO online searching, but it is not clear whether the recent birth additions are simply old transcripts that had not been uploaded before for some reason, or part of a new project.

Very recent years have never had a printed index, and are “all electronic”, with the data simply being copied from one system to another. In principle, they could probably add recent marriages with relatively little effort, but haven’t done so.

Thank you for that Mark. It explains it well.

Just did a check.
My brother was born in 1932 and his mother's maiden name is listed
Victor

The indexes on all websites from 1984 onwards include the GROs own index and are not taken from the old microfiche - hence the reason that all the websites are the same. The GRO stop passing out the annual updates to all the sites back in 2007 hence the stop date on most websites.

There have been several changes in the indexes over the years that confuse many and certainly the GROs own indexes have made solving some issues a lot easier with the inclusion of all given names. But the other are

General
Up till 1910 and from 1966 second given name in full
Births
Mothers maiden name included from Q3 1911
Marriages
Surname of spouse included from Q1 1912
Deaths
Age at death from Q1 1866
From Q2 1969 date of birth rather than age

It is possibly also worth noting that death certificates are notorious for errors after all the only person who knew all the right answers was the deceased

Worth noting that, when the GRO created its new indexes, they changed their own rules about how to index birth registrations where (a) the parents are not married but also (b) both parents are named.

As I recollect, the paper based indexes will index such children twice, under both parents surnames. Hence the entry under the mother's surname will show the (usually) tell-tale configuration of registered surname matching Mother's Maiden Name - which usually denotes illegitimacy. (But not if a Smith married a Smith!)

The replacement indexes compiled (or re-compiled if you like) for the GRO site take no notice of the fact that the parents weren't married and the child is indexed once only, under their father's surname. Hence no tell-tale.

What I don't know is when this revised process came into play - do the "born digital" indexes follow the same principle?