Show 1 t birls < a < Were Legally Boys I I1 f Quito the most extraordinary prc Lament In which any > Girl ever had i sure r I re 1 J i oiitly discovered that she figured in Jthe ofliclal register of births as a boy I 1 JI Being about to be married she applied I i to the proper authorities for a birth cer j jiililleate and was then horrified to find 1I I Iftlisil the above atnaains blunder had JI jjbcon perpetrated at the lime oC the r ftplrtrition of her birth f She also found that the police had a J J warrant out for the arrest of the sup nosed boy 101 not presenting hlmsclC Ii I foVlhe usual term of military service I i imie coiiscquence is that the marriage Jeunnot 1 take place for at least six I months and It will take fully that time k J J > or the poor girl to establish her Iden Itit ty and to geL the extraordinary blunt ii blun-t tI i I der put right How It came to be made 1 there Is at present 1 nothing to show taut gross carelessness was probably responsible r re-sponsible for it f RII I Perhaps still more remarkable In of another some respects was the case I young lady of France who resided al bateauThierry But the inaccurate Hregislration of her sex did not prevent t t Mr postpone her wedding for it was not discovered until a month or two after that happy event had taken place r y An amusing feature of this case is that the girl was married by the Chief I Magistrate of the commune oC Fresnes 1 I without this official noticing that her births certificate erroneously described 1 hernis a child of the mule sex This It1 I nnounl1il1 discovery was subsequently 1rlde bv the husband who greatly perturbed per-turbed at the prospect of having his newly acquired better half called upi up-i lorthe usual term of military service oC thesterner sex at once petitioned the I kivil j tribunal for a rectification of the erlor I As a preliminary l step that court appointed II ap-pointed a medical expert lo investigate 1 and draw up a report as to the real sex J of 1 the subject of the proceedings While birth registration Is certainly not one of the things that arc managed I I better 1 In France there have been at east 3 one or two similar mistakes made I In this country Four 01 lIve years ago one was brought to light in a Lan tl hire town owing to the victim of it having to produce a certificate of her I bicih us evidence of her qualification Inifpttlnt of age for a situation she was t into obtain In that document her I sex was set forth as that of a boy and aTtel1 a considerable amount of trouble lie niisdescription in the register wash was-h although there was nothing to show how it had originally arisen It f j only remains for the writer lo udd that the girl was duly appointed to the position posi-tion I fm which she had applied so she suffered no loss by the egregious mistake m mis-take of those responsible for the registration I regis-tration of her entry into this world Tn another instance a London young couple found that they had landed their offspring In a similar fix The mother had duly registered the birth within the statutory period and although she strongly protested that she had informed in-formed the registrar that the baby was a girl he had entered her on the regls tu as a boy furiously enough too the name given lo the child was one Sidney or Sydney I more frequently bestowed on babies I p of the male persuasion and perhaps I this had something to do with the error But fortunately the mistake was discovered dis i I enough to know or to care whether she had been registered as a girl or as a I boy and she was saved all the trouble of getting the entry put right in later j years IIur mother too was careful to I I ivo to all her subsequent children five = names which easily indicated the r I rcx to which the bearers of them belonged r be-longed For a further example of a girl who I was legally a boy we must turn to the French r Republic where we find her In 1 I the vicinity of Lyons As in most oft of-t l the other cases quoled she grew into womanhood before 1 > the blunder regarding I regard-ing her sex was found out but on ap Vilglns for her official papers to enable her to get married she was filled with f I flmazemcnt on learning that she was I described In the register oC births I as i of Uhe male sex 14 i ii The officials at the Malrle had some ii i 1 difficulty in convincing her that they I I vfirn not joking at her expense but she r wyflr t finally satisfied and took the necessary t neces-sary step to have the error corrected i Her suitor however was so perturbed 1 1 by the discovery that he broke on the engagement t f l It Is a question which Is in the worse pretllcainunt tlieglrl who has been reg istered erroneously or the one who has I lat I l ter was the fate of a Paris Infant some I I fev years ago the omission to register i 1 her birth being due to the death of her I i father a few days before and the death I ofher mother a few days after she was I j born The omission was not put right until the girl had grown up so that until she became a woman she had no legal status at all Then the necessary en try was only inscribed on the register after her three brothers and a number I of intimate friends of the family had appeared and given evidence before the Mayor that she was truly and lawfully their sister as she claimed to beTlt i Bits |