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Missing entries - GRO Online Index

  • Thread starter Thread starter At home in NZ
  • Start date Start date
Note that whilst the original post was uncompromisingly critical of the GRO's new online index, we now know that the incorrect age for one of the individuals was recorded in the printed version of the contemporary quarterly index, and that the post itself included the wrong spelling of the individuals' surname.

Perhaps you can now understand why I defend modern transcribers - who generally have to interpret monochrome microfilmed images of old handwriting. sometimes written in pencil or (more often) scratched with a quill pen, relating to people of whom they know nothing!
 
I find a birth index entry for a cousin Mable Cannon on all the usual sites. She was born
Name: Mabel Cannon
Registration Date: 1873
Quarter of the Year: Jul-Aug-Sep
Registration Place: Nantwich, Cheshire, England
Volume: 8a
Page: 321

However, a search of the GRO index returns no match. I've checked on FreeBMD for other entries on the same page and they are found when I search the GRO index.

Any ideas why she might not be in the GRO index?

[Footnote: She appears to be illegitimate and is subsequently described as a child of her grandparents in censuses. Her grandmothers will reveals her true identity. I did spot a Mabel Platt on the same page when I looked on FreeBMD and a quick search for her on Ancestry didn't come up with any further matches. She does appear in a GRO index search but with no mothers maiden name. Is it possible she is in the indexes twice under different names? If I order the birth certificate using the details I have above, even though a search doesn't return a match, am I likely to receive it and will I be charged if they can't find it?]
 
The answer will be in my next newsletter, out shortly!

(If you can't wait, see this article from November 2016.)
 
Last edited:
Thanks.

I've been tidying up a family of 14 children born between 1822 and 1848 in London. I had a missing entry on the GRO index for an 1843 birth which I really wanted to find to confirm the mother's maiden name. The entry was there correct on FreeBMD, mistranscribed one way on Ancestry, another way on FamilySearch and FMP (but no maiden name there). So I knew all the details re quarter etc. But unless I'm missing something I had no way of finding it at GRO. I obviously tried the 'similar' etc options with many variations. Eventually I started changing the initial letter and success! It started with a 'K' rather than an 'H'. Small things....

I reported the error (9 days ago) and I noticed today it had already been corrected. There were 6 births post 1837 and only 2 were completely correct so I shall go back and report the others now, albeit I had managed to find them. All the children were baptised up to number 9 in 1838. That confirmed the earlier births so now I'm hoping all is spot-on.
 
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