Who do I think I am?

I have decided to blog my way through a family history project. The idea is to add at least one generation to each of my family lines. In some cases, this should be relatively straight forward since there are some female lines that I haven't yet looked into. In other cases, I don't expect any progress - for example, my gg grandfather born in Newry in 1828 and his putative father. I also expect no progress with my illegitimate gg grandmother. Apart from the above Irish line, all my ancestral lines come from England.

I decided to start with a problem I have been struggling with for over 40 years - the birth (or baptism) of my paternal grandmother, Florence Brooks. According to family sources she was born in Wood Green (the census says nearby Hornsey) on 28th November 1871, but I have never found her birth certificate.

I planned to include all the information I had about her and then talk about other research avenues I could pursue. Among the bits and bobs I gathered together, was an 1891 Hornsey census entry found by my wife last September. I had looked for this unsuccessfully at Portugal Street, when you could handle the original enumerator's books and at the Family Record Centre where you had to slog through microfilms. There may sometimes be a problem with computerised indexes, but they're a lot better than tired eyes! As I looked at this, it dawned on me there was a Florence Brooks, aged 20 with the "correct" father's name and "correct" father's occupation. I remember discussing this with my wife, and I have no idea how I missed its significance. Anyway, this Florence was born in Clerkenwell, not Hornsey.

A quick trip to Free BMD revealed two Florences registered in Islington (the district covering Clerkenwell) - one in the March quarter 1871 and one in the following June quarter. Someone born on 28th November 1870 might not be registered until the March quarter 1871, so I decided to order this certificate. I could not (of course) remember my password on the GRO site, but they helpfully e-mailed me a new one. I don't understand why they need a password, if they're prepared to e-mail a new one, but never mind. Hopefully, when the certificate arrives, a long running problem will have been solved.

This is a rather sorry story. I should have been able to sort it all out 40 years ago. The lesson appears to be that it's worth reviewing what you know from time to time and see if a penny drops.