How accurate are birth certificates?

[DirectorDave]

Are birth certificates really accurate? Could the information supplied by the parents be deliberately misleading?

I draw your attention to 2 cases.....both actors who claimed to be born in Scotland but after their deaths it emerged that their birth certificates states they were born in London.

Now I realise that for whatever reason it may have been to both these actors advantage to claim to be Scottish and their birth certificates are indeed accurate. However, it may be that they were indeed born in Scotland but registered as born in London due to growing fears of Scottish Independence?

Are we taking what is written on a birth certificate (especially around the times that interest us as Ripperologists) as fact or something less than fact?

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000057/bio

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0433150/bio

[Bob Hinton]

Accuracy

You must remember that certificates are only as accurate as the person supplying the information. I have come across several birth certificates where the information is deliberately falsified. The same goes for death certificates.

[Robert]

Yes, people can be slapdash, mistaken, or deceitful, e.g. unmarried daughter has child, which is then attributed to her parents.

[Errata]

my birth certificate has the wrong middle name for me on it, and has me born a year before I actually was. A common error for people writing checks in January, but I would imagine they would double check on official documents. The middle name thing however was because my Grandmother lied.