Why does the mother’s maiden name field contain first names?
One of the most omitted or incorrectly documented pieces of information on the birth certificates is the mother’s maiden name. Frequently only the first name is provided on the certificate. Rather than leave this field blank, it was felt that indexers should provide researchers with whatever information is available from the certificate. When adding these certificates to the index, the rule was to enter the last part of the mother’s maiden name as it appears on the certificate. For example, if “Jane Doe” was listed on the certificate, then “Doe” would be entered in the mother’s maiden name field. However, if only “Jane” appeared on the certificate then “Jane” was entered in the index. If no information was provided, the field was left blank.
