Is it possible that Sarah is Amy's mother or sister? If so she may have later adopted Lydia as her own daughter. I have seen examples of illegitimate grandchildren being shown as daughters of the head of household on censuses. Regards, Lynda Hi Lynda Thanks for responding.. Sarah Quinn (nee Lane) is Amy's mother. Her father is John Madagascar Quinn. One of my conclusions was that John and Sarah had adopted Lydia as their own. It's good to know that someone else thinks this as well! Since Amy was still unmarried in 1881, I would say that all the evidence points to Amy being the mother, her mother Sarah being the informant was, I guess, trying to cover up the fact that Amy was unmarried. By that time, the father of an illegitimate child had to be present at the registration to be included on the certificate, hence the crossing out. The eight M and nine M would relate to the alterations the Registrar made, any alteration had to be noted. Jennifer Hi Jennifer Thanks for replying. I wondered about Nathaniel - it's not a name I've come across before and I'm completely stumped. Thanks for explaining about the recording of a child's father's name. I can't see an obvious Nathaniel Quinn on Ancestry and I will probably have to just accept what's on the certificate. Hi Jo, It was illegal for the father of an illegitimate child to be named on a birth certificate unless he was present at the registration. In this instance I suspect that Sarah was asked the name of the father without realising this requirement and before the registrar had already written the name in the appropriate column. He was legally obliged to delete the name as soon as he realised the error, making a note in the margin that he had altered it. (This obviously stopped any possible later forgeries) This mistake, crossing out and correction would always be carried over on to any copies made in the future. It was fairly common for an illegitimate child of the daughter of a household to be raised by the grandparents, and I suspect that Sarah Quinn was in fact Amy's mother, I have seen instances where a grandchild in these circumstances is listed as a son/daughter on a census when in fact they are a grandson/granddaughter. I would say that you have the correct birth certificate and that Amy's father was a Nathaniel, although his surname is unknown. Hope this helps Sandra Hi Sandra You've come up with the same answer as Jennifer! This Nathaniel is going to bug me but I think I will just have to accept that I will never know who he was. Again, thanks to you all for taking the time to reply. Jo -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.7/711 - Release Date: 05/03/2007 09:41 BullGuard Anti-virus has scanned this e-mail and found it clean. Try BullGuard for free: www.bullguard.com