Birth Certificate help

[featherB 1]

Today I went to the Family Records Centre to get hold of the long-form copy of my birth certificate, as I only have the short one.

Had some trouble finding myself in the register... then discovered that, like most people, whoever put those books together had managed to spell my surname wrong - good going! Not only that, but instead of my mother's maiden name, they'd listed mine/my father's (incorrectly-spelled) surname. (Uh, no, they're not related, honest!)

I went to the customer service desk and showed a member of staff my passport (luckily I'd brought it with me as I didn't know if I'd need ID to get my birth certificate), to prove that the spelling they had was incorrect. Luckily my surname and middle name are both very uncommon so she couldn't think I was talking about someone else (not to mention the fact that the date and place of birth matched up). She just crossed out the incorrect spelling and put the correct one in. BUT she wouldn't change my mother's maiden name, for some reason, so that's completely wrong. I filled in all the correct details on my form, but am more than a little worried that when I go to collect my birth certificate next week, it's going to have all kinds of utter rubbish on it!

So... can anyone tell me what information is shown on a long-form birth certificate? I know it has the parents' names... I'm assuming that the mother's maiden name will be on there? In fact, my parents weren't married when I was born, so that's the only surname my mum had at the time. Aaaggghhh - I don't want a birth certificate showing my mother's maiden name being the same as my father's surname, might give people the wrong idea!! (I just phoned my mum to tell her all this and she thought it was quite funny - I'll be much less amused if my birth certificate has incorrect information on it!)

And, umm, if it does turn out to have the wrong info... has anyone ever gone about getting this kind of thing corrected? Can it even be done? The woman at the Family Records Centre didn't seem overly bothered, and didn't seem to think there would be a problem... but I can't help worrying. Suppose I should just wait 'til next week and see what they come up with, but... bloody hell, you'd think they'd actually manage to get this stuff right, wouldn't you?!

[no name 1]

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=40909

[featherB 1]

Thanks Devilette... I know what a long-form birth certificate is, I'm just concerned that mine's going to be full of totally incorrect information! I can see there's a photo of one attached to that thread, but due to my tiny computer screen (or maybe my rubbish eyesight), I can't read it properly.

Ugh... I suppose I just need to wait 'til next week and keep my fingers crossed that it's got the right information on it. Hopefully the actual certificate is correct and they just transferred it across to the main register incorrectly... or something.

[no name 1]

Thanks Devilette... I know what a long-form birth certificate is, I'm just concerned that mine's going to be full of totally incorrect information! I can see there's a photo of one attached to that thread, but due to my tiny computer screen (or maybe my rubbish eyesight), I can't read it properly.

Ugh... I suppose I just need to wait 'til next week and keep my fingers crossed that it's got the right information on it. Hopefully the actual certificate is correct and they just transferred it across to the main register incorrectly... or something.

you can't see this?

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...ost&id=2751

The long form is exactly that, longer. My fiance had both.

[featherB 1]

I can see it, and on closer inspection (my screen is tiny and fuzzy, so makes reading scanned documents a bit tricky sometimes), there is a space for 'maiden surname'. That's the bit that's worrying me - I wasn't just doing a 'can't be bothered to search the forum, I am thick, what is a long form birth certificate, anyone?' question - I know full well what one is but was (am) just rather stressed to discover that the register of births apparently might not have my correct details on it... if it turns out to show my father's surname instead of my mother's maiden name, I have no idea how to go about correcting it!! Suppose I should have used a more descriptive title, but can't edit that now.

Thank you, anyway... oh, and congratulations on the just-getting-married!

Edited November 14, 2006 by featherB

[no name 1]

I can see it, and on closer inspection (my screen is tiny and fuzzy, so makes reading scanned documents a bit tricky sometimes), there is a space for 'maiden surname'. That's the bit that's worrying me - I wasn't just doing a 'can't be bothered to search the forum, I am thick, what is a long form birth certificate, anyone?' question - I know full well what one is but was (am) just rather stressed to discover that the register of births apparently might not have my correct details on it... if it turns out to show my father's surname instead of my mother's maiden name, I have no idea how to go about correcting it!! Suppose I should have used a more descriptive title, but can't edit that now.

Thank you, anyway... oh, and congratulations on the just-getting-married!

Well, you have plenty of time, you just filed!

And thank you!

[featherB 1]

Good point! Now I'm glad I went to get hold of a copy of the thing good & early, even though I won't be needing it for months... I'm hoping that the (messed-up) record books will turn out to bear no resemblance to the actual birth certificate, but won't know until I go and collect it next week. Still, I suppose I can be reasonably sure my parents would have remembered to get 'minor' details (like their own names) right when they went to register my existence so hopefully I'll have nothing to correct...

Anyway, I will shut up with my fretting and panicking for now - thank you again!

Well, you have plenty of time, you just filed!

And thank you!