Hello John: I think that in the early days some registrars did record times of birth even for singleton births. So you can't be sure either way. But assuming that it was a twin birth would mean that both would be registered in the same district and same quarter. There are only 8 ROBSON births in Tynemouth for the March quarter of 1850 (see FreeBMD) of which one is your Robert Swan. It could be worth a letter to the local registrar for Tynemouth explaining the situation and requesting the birth cert for a second child. You'd have to list the other 7 and you'd have to send a cheque for at least one certificate. Specify that the parents must match those for Robert Swan and see what happens. The local registrars will usually return a cheque if they can't find a match. Regards, Irene Marlborough FreeCEN Coordinator for Manchester 1861 http://www.freecen.org.uk