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FreeBMD has transcriptions of the GRO index. These are essentially complete thru the 1930s, except 1918q4 (98% complete) and 1939 (82% complete). From 1911q3, the index contains the mum's MS=maiden surname.


Here I looked in Wigan RD for Smith-Banks kids 1911q3-1915

Births Sep 1912 (>99%)
Smith James Banks Wigan 8c 63
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Births Mar 1915 (>99%)
Smith John Banks Wigan 8c 107
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Births Dec 1915 (>99%)
Smith Thomas Banks Wigan 8c 5

Even here, it's likely the 2 1915 registrations are for difft families, but pre-1911q3, it gets impossible for Smiths. There's 851 in 1901-1911q2. Of course, most didn't die.

As you may know, you can buy BMD certs from the GRO and the RD in which the event was rego'ed (well, really the modern rego office that now has those old regos).
The point is that some modern RDs have their own indexes online, and these don't contain the same info as the GRO index. See -
http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/local_bmd

Here's the above 3 b.regos:

Lancashire Birth indexes for the years:
Surname Forename(s) Sub-District Registers At Mother's Maiden Name Reference
1912 SMITH James Wigan Wigan & Leigh BANKS WIG/271/88
1915 SMITH John Wigan Wigan & Leigh BANKS WIG/280/409
1915 SMITH Thomas Standish Wigan & Leigh BANKS STND/47/12

Now I might know my Smiths always lived in Wigan centre, and never in Standish, e.g..
Most local indexes give the subdistrict for b & d.regos.
Sometimes, you have to look at the postal order form to see this, and they don't always explicitly decode it.

E.g., here's some Newcastle local ref #s:
Register No./Entry No.
ALS64/381
Register No./Entry No.
BYK34/197
Register No./Entry No.
STA30/463
Register No./Entry No.
WSG67/485
Register No./Entry No.
LBN31/88

If you don't recognize some, look up some event, e.g.
Births Mar 1911 (>99%)
Smith John W Newcastle T. 10b 167

then click on the "Newcastle T" link, then the more info "here" link:
NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE REGISTRATION DISTRICT
Sub-districts : All Saints, Benwell, Byker, Dene, Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle upon Tyne Central, Newcastle upon Tyne East, Newcastle upon Tyne West, St. Andrew, St. Nicholas, Victoria, Westgate, Wingrove
Registers now held by : Newcastle upon Tyne.

This resolves all the subdistrict codes, except LBN=Longbenton.
This was a Tynemouth RD subdistrict moved to Newcastle RD (as explained in note 2e).


However, I didn't pick Wigan at random. They're one of the local indexes that list the mum's MS pre-1911.

Lancashire Birth indexes for the years:
Surname Forename(s) Sub-District Registers At Mother's Maiden Name Reference
1901 SMITH Harry Cecil Wigan Wigan & Leigh BANKS WIG/223/238
1902 SMITH Alfred Eric Sumner Wigan Wigan & Leigh BANKS WIG/229/259
1910 SMITH Ernest Wigan Wigan & Leigh BANKS WIG/265/222

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Here's a difft sort of record:

http://www.wiganworld.co.uk/stuff/cemetery.php?opt=cemetery
Surname Forename Age Place of Death Date Year Notes Grave Cremation Religion
McCann Lilian 2 mo 17 Northumberland St. 26-May 1888 D 72 * R C

The grave is D72* - the * was added by the transcribers to indicate this was likely a common grave.
However, I do recognize the addy - my McCann rellies were there in 1891.
(Since this is also a Wigan B & D, I can check her mum's MS, but the point was cemetery records might give clues, too.)

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How feasible your search is depends a lot on the surname - e.g., in 1911 there's only one Hesmondhalgh family in Leics.