GRO Extend Birth Indexes to 1934

Peter Calver, Founder of LostCousins reports in his 26th December 2020 Newsletter:

“At this time of year it’s usual for the GRO to add an extra year to their online index of births for England & Wales, so I was expecting 1920 to be added (now that the entries are 100 years old). But in fact they added all of the remaining entries from the registers that have been scanned and indexed, taking them up to 1934.

If you have used the birth index for 1984-2019 (see this newsletter article for more details) you’ll know that maiden names aren’t displayed in the search results, other than the name you specify – presumably to comply with Data Protection. It’s the same for the period 1921-1934.

However, as the original quarterly indexes for this period included the Mother’s Maiden Name it’s not a major problem – the main reason you’d want to use the GRO indexes after 1920 is to find out the full middle names of your relatives, information that isn’t shown in the quarterly indexes.”