MANY MISTAKES IN BIRTH REGISTRATIONS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18961, 7 January 1930, Page 13

MANY MISTAKES IN BIRTH REGISTRATIONS.

Parents are so careless at birth registrations! “A special Error Department is constantly kept busy here with unbelievable inaccuracies in that solemn document—the birth certificate,” said an official at Somerset House in discussing the case of a Hampshire boy who was officially described as “ .sex—female.” “ Date, age, parents, parish—all these are wrongly furnished many times a month, but an error like the description of a boy as a girl only crops up about twice a year on the average. The actual ways in which this mistake is made are often amusing. “ In one case I recall, a proud mother went to the registrar’s office to record her newlv-born son—but carrying her young daughter in her arms. The girl began to howl lustily, the mother became distracted and flustered and—gave the registrar particulars about the daughter! The certificate was put away and he was illogically described at jane Elizabeth—female. “In another case, of a not uncommon type, a deaf person misread Wilfred for Winifred, the inattentive parents did not correct him, and the wrong sex was duly passed on to the

'lllllililllllflllllllllllllllllllllllllllinillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllllllll registrar. Again, strange though it may seem, I have dealt with fathers who are ill-informed as to their child’s sex. “ In some cases the name is also ambiguous—like Evelyn—and Master Evelyn goes down Miss Evelyn in the law’s eyes—until someone notices it. There was a man who attained the age of 28 before he found he was officially a woman. “ The danger is that parents will not confess their mistake for fear of supposed consequences. In reality, providing the indignant John Williams can prove he really is the Marv Williams of the birth certificate, and that j his parents did not do it on purpose we change his (legal) sex in two months free of charge.”