Genealogy Chat

I would email Middlebrough with details you know and ask for verification eg DOB, wife's name whether he should be husband of, widower of. It costs nothing whereas GRO confirmation does Beth :) email is Register*at*middlesbrough.gov.uk

Dear Linda, I have to take what is noted on certificates with an open mind. My ggrandmother was listed as a spinster when she married my ggrandfather and her father listed on certificate as Thomas Bell (her surname at the time). However after much searching it turns out this was her second marriage. On her first marriage certificate her father was listed as Thomas Bolton (Bolton being her maiden name). On her birth certificate her father isn't even listed. On the 1881 census she lives with her mother and stepfather Thomas Hatfield. My guess is when she was asked her father's name she replied Thomas (her stepfather) and the registrar filled in the rest. Susan

Thank you everyone for your replies, Ethel was married in the registry office in middlesbrough, she also states on MC she was 19yrs old, when in fact was only 17yrs old. The Death of Thomas upton is of the right age, born June 1854- Died sept 1914 age 61yrs. He is the only Thomas I can find for middlesbrough in which I looked from 1901 to 1914 on st catherine`s Index. unless I have missed one inbetween! I will risk sending for the Death certificate & see if it is the right one! many thanks,Linda x

If he wasn't at the wedding the vicar might have made an assumption. Was the death reg for the right age? (I assume it was). The name Thomas Upton is pretty common, so unless you have reason to be certain he hadn't moved to another distict, then it might well be his death in 1914. On Family Relatives there are 39 Thomas Upton deaths 1901-1910 andwhere in Eng/Wales, though that is all age groups. MMM

I recently asked my uncle who is 88 for a copy of his wedding certificate for my family tree file, he married 1940's, he had the wrong name down for his father on the certificate, when I pointed that out neither he or his wife had ever noticed. That could have caused some problems for somebody else doing their family tree. It just shows what mistakes can be made. Regards Irene

Yes, it is possible for folks to lie on the certificates. The information is only as good as the person giving it. Maybe the person giving the info THOUGHT the father was dead. In my case, an Ancestor has fallen out with his father some years earlier and as far as he was concerned the Father was dead. Another instance, where a relly had heard her father had died ... but in actual fact, the father died some 17 years later. Information/details/excuses about people who are or aren't at the ceremony don't have to be given in any extent. If the bride tells the vicar her father is dead, then thats what he writes down ... no proof is needed at the time. Dancer x

unless the vicar was really confused, you have to deduce that Thomas wasn't at the wedding and somebody else walked up the aisle with Ethel and gave her away. Whatever the real reason for that, they'd probably feel the need to mumble some explanation and it would be easiest to say her father was dead

Linda - I think the one thing I've learned more than anything in genealogy is that anything is possible! Suzanne - I don't think freebmd has much info available after about 1910, I was looking for a marriage and they've got almost nothing after 1910, it might be the same for deaths. Brenda

My great grandfather's father was alive when he got married, but on his older sister's marriage cert, it says deceased. The sister was the first to get married. I have this info fromthe sister's great grandaughter, she told me there has been a family falling out.

My gt grandmother Ethel Upton got married to James W Thompson at middlesbrough in 1910. On her marriage she states her father is Deceased! yet I have found a Death of Thomas upton in 1914 middlesbrough on (correction) St catherine`s Index. Is there a possibility Ethel could have lied on MC about her father being dead. thanks,Linda x