Genealogy Chat

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Charles is born 1912 but registered in 1913 under his mothers maiden name of BENNETT His mother married his father Thomas GUIDREY Sep qtr 1913. Charles has always been known to his family as GUIDREY. Would his father have had to adopt him after their marriage, or could they just change his surname without anything official. Would the Family Records Centre be able to give me any information about this please.

Charles was illegitimate, so there would be problems if his father died without making a will and anyone knew he was illegitimate, but there has never been any need to change your name formally. Adoption proper would not come in for another decade.

Thank you for that Brenda, I wasn`t sure when actual adoption came in. I know from later similar situations that was the case. I have spoken to Charles son and have told him that it is possible that his father never knew he was born illigitimate, as back then these things were hushed up and never spoken about. He was surprised at the news, but at the same time relieved that he finally had the answer to why he couldnt find his fathers birth.

Hi Carol, Got the same situation in my tree. Took me ages to find my Nellie Chryst birth. From the 1901 census should have been around 1891 and cost me a small fortune in searches for it. Turns out, she was born in June 1891 and registered as Nellie Wood with no father named. Mother Elizabeth Wood formerly Adams marries Karol Chryst in November 1891 and the child is brought up as a Chryst. Nellie married as Nellie Chryst in 1913 and names Karol Philip Chryst as her father. My guess is Karol was probably the natural father but he never formally adopted her and she probably never knew the truth behind her birth. Regards, Claire x

The sound of all these rattleing skeletons must be deafening.

Tell me about it, i wonder if any of her children found the truth out or is it just me. Weird thing is, my grandad remember auntie Katie very well, Nellie's sister but has never heard of Nellie! I have not told him yet what i have found. C xx

Hello Carol I have this to. My mum had always said her father was one of 7 children, but it turns out two of them were born before my Great Grandparents married, one kept her mother's surname and the other ended up with our family name. I now have 2 trees, one with the correct names in and the other one for the sake of my family as their children are still living with the names they know, have only told my mother the truth. As you say skeletons rattling around and I dont want to be the one to tell someone that who he believes is his Grandfather probably wasn't.

I know these days that if parents marry after the birth the child becomes legitimized. I don't know the position back then though. The registrar should be able to tell you.

Another point is i was born in the first week of January 1971, parents were unmarried and they married 3 weeks later. I actually have 3 birth entries on BMD, one with my mother's maiden name, one with my father's surname and another one, which I am assuming is linking the two. I am awaiting copies as in the past whenever I have asked for a full certificate I only receive one whichs states my name, dob and place of birth and lists no parents, etc.

A long time ago, when I was but a lass at school, before I really got into this genealogy lark, I had to draw my family tree for some school homework. My paternal gran and grandad were really helpful, gave me loads of names and info (wish I'd kept it all now!). My maternal gran gave me all the certificates she had, and I discovered that my auntie had been born several months before gran and my grandad got married Now gran was very good at waffling and fudging things, so this was her answer when my mum decided to ask her about this - 'They must have made a mistake with the certificate!' Lisa