[BITList] jon stewart again

[HUGH]

Colin,

After a very wet and cold day I am alone with our cat, and she is fast asleep downstairs.  My wife is house, cats, grandson (18) and dog sitting at our daughter's place while daughter and husband are way up at Inveraray enjoying a celebration at the caravan park (where it's also pissing down). So, any decent TV having finished, I came upstairs to check the mail before turning in.

I note two items in your interesting mail about voting rights inthe US of A.

Maiden names:  I'd always thought the use of a maiden name as a middle name was a peculiarly American custom, until I noted it in some old Scottish records, where they used it as a shorthand, eg, Mary Smith Jones, instead of Mary Jones nee Smith.  I've never seen this used in the UK in other circumstances.

Birth Certificate originals:  In Scotland, originals (and also those for Marriages and Deaths) are held either in New Register House, Edinburgh, or in the local Register Office (not sure which), and are not available for any purpose. The copies issued to informants are just that, typed or handwritten copies, and these are are used to satisfy people and organisations who ask for certificates. However, and exceptionally, I was issued with a photocopy of an original Death Certificate about 18 months ago. I had taken the copy I was issued when my father died in 1983 to the local Registrar, and demanded to know why it said he'd died at 7.30pm (in hospital), when the digital image of the original I'd transcribed in Glasgow said he'd died at 6.18am. "What are you implying?" she asked defensively.  "A cover up," I said, at which she snatched up my copy and took it into some inner sanctum.  She emerged after 15 minutes with an officially stamped photocopy of the original (or of their copy of the original) and a glib tale about typing errors. It was only when I got home I realised she'd retained the copy - no doubt it had been shredded.

Hugh.
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