Should I query this?

[kernowmaid]

Evening All

I received this Birth Cert from GRO today


It looks "odd" - as though it has been cut & pasted. Look above the mother's name box, and also above the informant's box. The tops of a name, and I swear that says "His" (as in "His mark").

Do you think this is "normal"?
Should I query this with GRO? - If so ... how??

Jane

 

[Ma-dotcom]

It does so look & not well done either. Probably to let you see a birth which was lower down under the actual books heading I've done similar with snips from Baptisms instead of the whole page especially when writing was messy. That effort does look rather 'false'

 

[Daft Bat]

The GRO send copies from their ledgers. What they have done is copy the entry for your chap and pasted it over the entry at the top of the page. That way, you have the headings showing.

It just looks to have been done rather sloppily - not lined up properly.

That's what I reckon.

 

[kernowmaid]

Thanks guys.
So I can relax - this is "the real thing".

It makes me wonder, though ... what exactly are we buying when we order "a certificate" - it's not really a copy of the original, is it?
Still open to human error.
(I have 2 copies of my gt grandparents' Marriage Cert - the GRO version has witness "ANNE". The copy that we found in their papers was witness "ANNIE".
It made a heck of a difference - I thought that ANNE was the bride's mother, and spent years (& wrong certs) looking for her death. But ANNIE was the bride's step-sister, which made me search for an earlier ANNE death - found it, before the marriage year.)

Jane

 

[Sis]

Here you go, I've tidied it up a bit, not perfect though.

 

[Daft Bat]

It makes me wonder, though ... what exactly are we buying when we order "a certificate" - it's not really a copy of the original, is it?
Still open to human error.

From the GRO it is a copy of the entry in their ledgers. A copy of the marriage is sent to them and then transcribed. I have a copy of a several great grandmother's certificate where the vicar's first name was entered instead of her father's and then crossed out and corrected. Human error.

Copies of originals would be images of the actual Parish Registers.