Question about short birth certificates
 

I have a couple of short birth certificates in my collection but they don't answer my question because they are for babies with married parents.

If an unmarried couple were both at the birth registration and they brought away a short certificate, what surname would be on the document?

Nowadays the parents choose which surname the child is going to have, and the surname they choose will be on the short certificate, but I don't know whether it was the same when the short certificate was originally brought in.

I didn't think you could have a short birth cert any more?

My daughter and her partner are not married. When they went together to register the birth of my grandson, they were asked what surname the boy will use and that is what is on his (long) birth certificate.

Historically, I was born before there was a surname column on birth certificates. It was assumed by convention that you would use the surname of your father but that has never been compulsory. So I assume that the same question that is asked now, was asked then - what surname will the child use. (Where the parents were not married to each other).

OC

The one I'm wondering about is from the 1960s.

I feel really ridiculous typing this as it seems so unlikely, but if someone only had their short cert and knew their mother was unmarried, they could potentially not know their father was recorded on their full cert?

I think that's right, yes. Possible.

Sorry, by "nowadays" I guess I meant "in the 1990's".

OK thanks.

But if both parents registered the birth, there should be two index entries, one for each surname.

The entry is indexed twice, so the full cert would show the father's details. I just wondered if the child might not know that if the only cert they have seen is a short one.

I find this hard to believe, but it is possible, I think!

More than possible I would think, considering that many people have no idea how the system works. I remember a woman on another site who only discovered when she was in her late 60s that she was adopted because she had only ever had a short birth certificate.

OC

You are right about people not knowing how the system works OC. I know my mother used to think that short certificates were issued to illegitimate people, whilst everyone else had a full cert!