Strangeness on online GRO birth index

[kiterunner]

I could never find the birth registration for James Alma ANNIS in 1860 until the new online GRO birth index was made available, and then I found him listed in Apr-Jun 1860, MMN Vincent, Docking district, vol 4b, p 308. The index for that quarter on FreeBMD was one of those which had been typed up from an original handwritten page, and it turned out that he was listed on there (FreeBMD) as Amies, although his surname was Annis on the GRO site. I hadn't expected him to be in that quarter as he was age 8 months on the 1861 census.

Now I see that there are two entries for him on the online GRO birth index, the second one being James Alma Annis, Oct-Dec 1860, MMN Vincent, Docking district, vol 06c, page 308. Volume 6c is a completely different part of the country, and page 308 was out of range for Docking in that quarter. I don't remember seeing this second entry when I originally found him on the GRO site.

Not related (as far as I know), but I noticed while trying to puzzle out the above, that there is also a Josiah Annis on FreeBMD - birth registration Apr-Jun 1860 Erpingham, vol 4b, page 66, who comes up twice on the online GRO index - once in Apr-Jun with those references, and then again in Oct-Dec 1860 with volume number changed to 06c. MMN is Pitcher in both entries.

Any idea what's going on here? Do you think the GRO's database is corrupted? If you're ordering any certs from them I would definitely recommend checking against FreeBMD or similar first.

I've reported it to the GRO.