In a message dated 21/07/2004 00:03:05 GMT Daylight Time, honey@honeyshome.com writes: Would the page number be "FC 544243"? That's the only number on the certificate but that could just be their number from this year, not 1848, couldn't it? Wait, hang on ... The number in the first column is 389, is THAT the number you mean? I didn't mention this in my first post either, but the registration district is/was Lanchester, birth in the sub-district of Lanchester, County of Durham. What was meant by the page number is not something you would find on the certificate irself. It is the number of the page in the Registrar General's book of copies of certificates. This is the reference to be found in the GRO indexes (the one we should NOT quote unless we are ordering a certificate from the FRC in London, who now have those books: it is meaningless to a local registrar who has his own books). That reference will begin with a code for the region, possibly "25" for the period you mentioned: later 10a, followed by the page number. As there were, I think, four certificates per page, multiple births might have been recorded on the same, or on consecutive pages. You should check through the GRO indexes (available on line for a fee) for any entries with the same surname on the same, or an adjacent, page. If you find any they may, or may not, be of a multiple birth to the same mother. I agree that in England the recording of the time of birth was done only for multiple biirths - as a general rule. However, in Scotland, for the first few quarters after the introduction of Civil Registration there, in 1855, it was the norm for all births. There is always the possibility that the local registrar hereabouts was an over-enthusiastic Scot, in the same Presbyterian tradition of recording as much data as possible as gave us the "Dade" parish registers of the midlands and south, the "Barrington" ones locally and, in 1855, the early Scottish birth certificates! . Geoff Nicholson . 57 Manor Park, Concord, WASHINGTON, Tyne & Wear NE37 2BU Long-established Professional Genealogist: ask for details of NBL/DUR family history research by THE local expert, working for YOU.

Hi Geoff :) Thanks very much for clarifying this for me! :D I WILL one day know enough about English genealogy to not have to ask "silly" questions ... well one can hope anyway! :D Take care, Rob.l IBSSG Stuttgart, Germany Honey's Home of Genealogy www.honeyshome.com ----- Original Message ----- From: GNicresearch@aol.com To: ENG-DURHAM-L@rootsweb.com Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2004 9:55 AM Subject: Re: [ENG-DUR] Elizabeth ARMSTRONG In a message dated 21/07/2004 00:03:05 GMT Daylight Time, honey@honeyshome.com writes: Would the page number be "FC 544243"? That's the only number on the certificate but that could just be their number from this year, not 1848, couldn't it? Wait, hang on ... The number in the first column is 389, is THAT the number you mean? I didn't mention this in my first post either, but the registration district is/was Lanchester, birth in the sub-district of Lanchester, County of Durham. What was meant by the page number is not something you would find on the certificate irself. It is the number of the page in the Registrar General's book of copies of certificates. This is the reference to be found in the GRO indexes (the one we should NOT quote unless we are ordering a certificate from the FRC in London, who now have those books: it is meaningless to a local registrar who has his own books). That reference will begin with a code for the region, possibly "25" for the period you mentioned: later 10a, followed by the page number. As there were, I think, four certificates per page, multiple births might have been recorded on the same, or on consecutive pages. You should check through the GRO indexes (available on line for a fee) for any entries with the same surname on the same, or an adjacent, page. If you find any they may, or may not, be of a multiple birth to the same mother. I agree that in England the recording of the time of birth was done only for multiple biirths - as a general rule. However, in Scotland, for the first few quarters after the introduction of Civil Registration there, in 1855, it was the norm for all births. There is always the possibility that the local registrar hereabouts was an over-enthusiastic Scot, in the same Presbyterian tradition of recording as much data as possible as gave us the "Dade" parish registers of the midlands and south, the "Barrington" ones locally and, in 1855, the early Scottish birth certificates! . Geoff Nicholson . 57 Manor Park, Concord, WASHINGTON, Tyne & Wear NE37 2BU Long-established Professional Genealogist: ask for details of NBL/DUR family history research by THE local expert, working for YOU. ==== ENG-DURHAM Mailing List ==== Browse the ENG-DURHAM archives http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/eng-durham