GRO entries - Genealogists' Forum

Durham Lady · #1 04-12-23, 06:19

I'm researching my daughter in law's paternal family and have come across 2 entries for the year and district, Sheffield, with correct surname and mmn
1 has Volume 2D page 137 and the other has Volume 2D page 137A
What is the significance of the A could these be twins or just a co-incidence of having the correct parent's surnames. Thought I'd ask opinions before I spend money on ordering certificates. Might have sent for pdf's at £2.50 but will wait as they are not available for the year in question.

Merry · #2 04-12-23, 07:37

I probably shouldn't be answering as I don't have a definitive answer, but I did a search with the details you gave and, by chance, turned up two examples of the issue you are referring to, one of which is probably 'your' pair of entries.

I don't think these are twin entries as with twins the two certificates would either have the same page number, or one number different if the second twin's entry was recorded on the following page to the first twin's entry. Normally no 'a' would be involved!

In both the instances I'm looking at, the names without the additional 'a' are quite unusual and in both cases there are no marriage or death entries in that name anywhere in England/Wales, but there are further entries for the names with the additional 'a'. Of course this could be a fluke, but I'm thinking it's more likely in both cases the child's name was changed soon after the original registration. I presume this happened in the same Q as the original registration as neither of the 'a' entries appear at the bottom of the index page as an amendment.

Let's see if anyone else can come up with a more definitive answer though!

kiterunner · #3 04-12-23, 07:43

There is someone in my tree whose name was changed after their birth was registered (in 1924), and they are indexed twice on FreeBMD, once with the original name and once with the changed name, with the page number for the second entry having an additional "a". On the GRO site only the original name is indexed but it says "Occasional Copy: A" after the page number.

Merry · #4 04-12-23, 08:04

"Occasional Copy: A" is what I would have liked to have seen for the entries I looked at, but they were all out of the date range for the GRO site.

Durham Lady · #5 04-12-23, 08:08

Thanks Merry and Kite, I didn't add given names as 1 I know is alive. Does occasional Copy mean the name has been changed? It might be worth investing in certificates. I don't want D in L to spend money she doesn't have too. Her family are very cagey at giving anything out and her mother refuses to have anything to do with genealogy so won't tell her anything.

Would it say on the occasional copy what the changes were?

kiterunner · #6 04-12-23, 08:21

"Occasional copy A" doesn't always mean that the name was changed, but that something was. There is some information about it on here:
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/inde...topic=862475.9

Merry · #7 04-12-23, 08:29

If I was ordering a copy of a cert that either showed the 'a' after the page number and/or "Occasional Copy: A" on the GRO site, I would always order using those details over any other index version.

In theory you could order the cert from any of the available references and you should always receive the document showing the changes (as the original registration details without the change(s) should have been suppressed), but I always imaging 'in theory' might not work in every instance!!

Durham Lady · #8 04-12-23, 08:54

Thanks again, I'll suggest D in L gets one or both certificates.

Olde Crone · #9 04-12-23, 08:57

In my head (if nowhere else!) "a" stands for alteration. Sometimes it's a name change, sometimes it's a middle name added etc - I was told by an experienced researcher that sometimes a baptismal name was added after registration because many religions believe(d) a baptismal name was more important than a secular name. How true that is in modern times I don't know.

OC

Merry · #10 04-12-23, 09:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Durham Lady

Thanks again, I'll suggest D in L gets one or both certificates.

There should only be one certificate - just two index entries leading to it.

If your daughter-in-law orders the one with the 'a' and there's an amendment to the first name on the certificate, there will be no point in getting the other one, as it should be exactly the same.