Meryl, Could you try applying for the certificate in the name BAWTREE but using the page refs for the BAUM entry and quoting father's name as a requirement for the certificate (that way you don't pay if it isn't the one)? I'm not at all surprised the index appears wrong. I keep remembering back to Michael Foster's research on the marriage indexes and his assessment of the rather big proportion of wrongly (or not) indexed marriages (A Comedy of Errors or The Marriage Records of England and Wales 1837-1899 by Michael Whitfield Foster). If anyone hasn't read this, it is well worth a look - if only as a reminder to not totally trust GRO indexes. Corinne Curtis #5579 On Thu, May 19, 2016 at 6:58 AM, Merryl Wells via <[email protected]> wrote: >> I thought of leaving a PostEm note but no one searching for Bawtree would >> think to look at it. Also it is therefore possible that the other entries >> are not just in the wrong place but have the wrong surname? I looked in >> my Bawtree birth indexes for the previous entry of Lilian Louisa Baurn but >> couldn't find any Lilian Louisa Bawtree births at all. >> >> Can't think of anything I can do to get it corrected or to warn other >> researchers as guess I would have to buy the Baurn certificate to prove >> it's really Bawtree.

Corinne/Meryl, >I'm not at all surprised the index appears wrong. I keep remembering back to Michael Foster's research on the marriage indexes and his assessment of the rather big proportion of wrongly (or not) indexed marriages (A Comedy of Errors or The Marriage Records of England and Wales 1837-1899 by Michael Whitfield Foster). If anyone hasn't read this, it is well worth a look - if only as a reminder to not totally trust GRO indexes.< Michael Foster published a further volume in 2002: "A Comedy of Errors, Act 2". In it, I think, he estimated that about 10% of the marriage records 1837-1899 had errors. I am just finishing a study of the Cardinal Points for Newcastle upon Tyne Registration District 1837 to 1911 and I would suggest that 10% is about right. There are undoubtedly errors in the actual church registers, such as inconsistencies between the spellings of name, but these are compounded by errors in the compiling of the indexes. I have found missing spouses, wrong spouses and missed marriages! Regards, Phil Thirkell