Help please ! Non appearance of birth in Civil Registration Birth Index 1837-1915

[mpriestnall]

I have a copy of the birth certificate of 'X' born in the late 1880's and know the volume and page references.

I'm wondering why there is no entry for their birth in the Civil Registration Birth Index (C.R.B.I) 1837-1915 as viewed on www.ancestrylibraryedition.co.uk

(I doubt the fact that I'm using the library edition of ancestry is relevant to the item being missing).

Unfortunately it's not possible to give the actual details e.g names, references etc.

I'm looking for reasons why the birth would not appear in the alphabetical list of births in the C.R.B.I.

Has any one experienced this or is this an unexpected or unlikely scenario?

Appreciate any help or suggestions.

[Debra A]

I've seen this happen when there has been a mistake in transcribing the entry for the index, either in the spelling of the name or the page and volume number.
I've never used Ancestry's C.R.B.I Library Edition but I was going to say you could also check Free BMD or the GRO for the same details, if you haven't already. It could be a simple indexing error on that particular database.
How did you manage to find the volume and page number?
Debs

[John Savage]

If all else fails you could check with your local library to see if they still have the old fashion microfiche version available.

Rgds
John

[mpriestnall]

I've seen this happen when there has been a mistake in transcribing the entry for the index, either in the spelling of the name or the page and volume number.
I've never used Ancestry's C.R.B.I Library Edition but I was going to say you could also check Free BMD or the GRO for the same details, if you haven't already. It could be a simple indexing error on that particular database.
How did you manage to find the volume and page number?
Debs

Hi Debra, thank you for your suggestions.

I found the entry now!

As you know, on ancestry you drill down within the printed birth registration index list using 3 dropdowns for birth year, quarter and the initial letter of the surname. The entry of interest was listed at the end of the previous letter eg. at the end of the Ls instead of the beginning of the Ms as it should have been. Therefore the error was in the user interface on ancestry, not the index itself.

I obtained the certificate sometime ago during the pandemic and would have found the volume and page number from the page entry for the birth after a search on ancestry (or FMP, not sure which). I would have trebled checked these numbers with Free BMD AND GRO before ordering the cert.

I was revisiting the entry for this birth registration as I was looking for an anomaly in the registration date, as it's undermines an important timeline for me. I know it's not the normal approach for genealogical research but I do have sound reasons for this line of thinking!

[mpriestnall]

If all else fails you could check with your local library to see if they still have the old fashion microfiche version available.

Rgds
John

John, thanks for the suggestion. As mentioned in post #4 I have found the entry now, but I need to look at the registration again and will probably need to look at original sources for this registration if possible. I also need to get up to speed with the registration process to figure out what I'm doing!

A local history society is offering cd downloads for the birth records so that is one possibility to follow up. Also they may provide a contact for me to hire a locally based researcher to look into this for me. Or even better, to look at the relevant records for me gratis!

[Pcdunn]

Errors in public records on genealogy sites do turn up. I have found the age of my sister-in-law off by 10 years while using Ancestry's marriage records. Someone had written a very thin 2 that had been typed in as a 1. Fortunately, I was able to report the error directly to the company.