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Name: Katherine Elizabeth Checketts
Birth Date: 26 Dec 1908
Date of Registration: Mar 1998
Age at Death: 89
Registration district: Sandwell
Inferred County: West Midlands
Register Number: A57
District and Subdistrict: 0701A
Entry number: 104

Dena

The simple answer about looking for children is .................

Go to freebmd.......URL posted above...........and put in the two surnames.........select births........click on 'find

BMDs
Firstly, FreeBMD's transcription of the printed GRO index at:
http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl

Here's the marr hit:
Marriages Sep 1929 (>99%)
Cox Katherine E Checketts Dudley 6b 2321

If I click on the page (2321) link, I get to see all the folk on that page (which naturally includes the spouse - barring mistranscriptions/misindexing).

Marriages Sep 1929 (>99%)
Checketts George Cox Dudley 6b 2321
Cox Katherine E Checketts Dudley 6b 2321
Houlston Dhyllis Wastall Dudley 6b 2321
Wastall Frank W Houlston Dudley 6b 2321

Mostly, one just does this for marrs, but suppose I found a birth pre-1929q3, say:
Births Sep 1928 (>99%)
Checketts Ignatius Cox Dudley 6b 2321

If I click on this page # and see:

Births Sep 1928 (>99%)
Checketts Ignatius Cox Dudley 6b 2321
Cox Ignatius Cox Dudley 6b 2321
etc

I might reasonably assume these both refer to the same kid, and there's two index entries, each pointing to Iggy's b.cert.
If you look at a b.cert from 1969q1 or earlier (I don't know abt after that), you'll see the kid's surname isn't explicitly given.
It's left to be inferred from his parents' surname(s). There's usually 2 difft surnames from unwed parents, so there's an index entry under each surname.
(The father's only allowed to be named if he gives written permission, usually by accompanying the mother to the rego office.)

I can also click on the "Dudley" link, then the more info "here" link, and see info abt Dudley RD, incl the villages, etc in the RD.
Of particular interest here is:

DUDLEY REGISTRATION DISTRICT
Sub-districts : Brierley Hill; Dudley; Rowley Regis; Sedgley; Tipton; Wordsley.
Registers now held by : Dudley and Sandwell.

so this names all the subdistricts that were ever in Dudley. RDs change their boundaries (as one can infer since some old Dudley rego's are now at Sandwell).

Why is this subdistrict info of interest?
Well, the GRO's not the only place you can buy certs - you can also buy them from the local office where they occured (strictly, the modern local office that holds those regos).
Now some local RDs have their own index at least partly online - see:
http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/local_bmd

Of interest here is:
http://www.westmidlandsbmd.org.uk/

West Midlands Marriage indexes for the years: 1929
Surname Forename(s) Surname Forename(s) Church / Register Office Registers At Reference
CHECKETTS George COX Katherine E Dudley, St James Dudley Register Office 202/015/316

As we see, the local index doesn't have the same info as the GRO index.
The local ref is 202/015/316 - 202 identifies the church (which is decoded for us as Dudley, St James).
This m.cert is in their 15th rego - which covers some particular time span, and 316 is the entry #.
(Church regos have 500 entries at 2 per page, so it must be an entry #, not a page #).
Most local indexes give entry #s for marrs, and page #s for Bs & Ds (Local B/D regos have 500 entries - 5 per page).
So here's one of our Bs:

West Midlands Birth indexes for the years: 1943
Surname Forename(s) Sub-District Registers At Reference
CHECKETTS Xxxxxxx Dudley (DUD) Dudley Register Office DUD/18A/203

and the matching FreeBMD hit:
Births Mar 1944 (86%)
Checketts Xxxxxxx Cox Dudley 6c 14

Again, difft info. One oddity is the date 1943 vs 1944q1.
The GRO index is always by quarter of registration. Some local indexes use year of event.
This is evidently the case here, and we've probly got a latish Dec birth, rego'ed probly in Jan (within the 6 weeks allowed).

This also happens for:
Births Mar 1941 (>99%)
Checketts Yyyyyyy Cox Dudley 6b 13

Suppose I live in Sedgley, and I have to rego a B or D.
I don't have to traipse all the way to the superintendent's office in Dudley to do this - I can go to the Sedgley subdistrict office.
So each subdistrict has it's own rego's. At the end of each quarter, the subdistrict registrars had to make a copy of that quarters events and send them into the district superintendent, along with any completed regos.
The superintendent checked them over, and gathered all the subdistrict returns together and shipped them off to the GRO.
Anyways, if I've got a 1944 birth, the local index has to tell me which subdistrict rego it's in.
(At the GRO, they will take the Dudley stack, follow it with the Sedgely stack, etc, then follow it with the next RD - bind them all together, & number the pages - so one quarter, Dudley might run pages 1-30, then Sedgely 31-45, etc.)

Your 4 biths were all in Dudley subdistrict.

I would always check a local index (if one's available) as well as the GRO index.

Have you put in Checkett or CheckettS Prickles???

Dea x

Yes they do, PH! Where are you looking

Andy

Let us know if you can't find them and we can send you the births by PM.

Good luck! :-)

Edit: Oddly, those births don't show on Ancestry!

Go to freebmd then just enter surname and the spouse/mmn select births and enter the year start at the date of the marriage and the date end as required if its a common name then also select the registration district or county

http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/cgi/search.pl

it returns 4 births for those names

Roy

You can use

www.freebmd.org.uk

Completely free for any births marriage deaths in England and Wales 1837 to c1960

Ask for births, put in Checkett and Cox into surname boxes and a year range, say 1929 to 1955.

Andy

PS You should get 4 children. Won't print them here as may well still be living