Thank you everyone for your help and suggestions. The writing is stacked like below, so I think the suggestion of hours and minutes as she was a twin makes sense. She comes up on census with a sister the same age, and they are in the indexes, but I won't say for sure she is a twin until I obtain the certificate, but its likely. Thank you again for all your help On 5 February 2010 19:05, muddcity <muddcity@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi > > I just rejoined the Kent list tonight as i had left to give myself a break > > But have started digging again for my own ancestors as well as helping a > friend. I am hoping that someone can help me decipher something on a birth > cert. > > I sent off for my friends mothers birth certficate. She was born in Sand St > in Woolwich, but the entry where the date of birth is there are two extra > lines of script. > > It says > > 30th Nov 1894 > H - M > 5 - am > 49 Sand St > > Its the H - M that I am puzzled about. We think she was a twin and I am > lucky in that it gives the time of birth. but can anyone suggest what the > H-M is about. > > Thanks for any help and suggestions > > Lynn >

The certificate probably won't tell you whether she is a twin. My great grandmother's birth certificate states that she was born at "30 minutes past 6 A.M.", which I thought strange but no indication of her being a twin. I didn't even think of that either, as there was no close sibling on any census. Eventually another family member told me that she'd had a twin brother who died quite soon after birth. He is present on FreeBMD with exactly the same details and one of these days I'll spring for his birth certificate too to see what time he was born. Terry, Oakville, Ontario >but I won't say for sure she is a twin until I obtain the certificate, but its likely.

On Fri, 5 Feb 2010 20:22:32 -0500 "Terry Taylor" <trees.taylor@sympatico.ca> wrote: Hello Terry, > The certificate probably won't tell you whether she is a twin. My Very true, but muddcity has found the person with a sister in census returns, and seems to have found two indexes in the same quarter, so it's quite likely. Of course, to be sure, both certs are required to check whether parents are the same. -- Regards _ / ) "The blindingly obvious is / _)rad never immediately apparent" It's your life so go your own way Questions And Answers - Sham 69

Hi Lynn, This info is from Barbara Dixon's Certificate Tutorials - If there is a time against the date of birth then there was more than one child born alive at the birth. If one was alive and one stillborn, then the live twin will not have a time against the date. It is possible to check for twins by looking for identical or consecutive GRO references in the indexes. If the child lived for only seconds, there should still be a register of the birth and the death, though this was not always done. Cheers Trish Nowra NSW I think the suggestion of hours and minutes as she was a twin > makes sense. She comes up on census with a sister the same age, and they > are > in the indexes, but I won't say for sure she is a twin until I obtain the > certificate, but its likely.