Genealogy Chat

Was told about one girl who worked in a 'big house' and got pregnant. The child had the owner's surname as her middle name???!!!! followed by mothers surname. Now is that a clue to something untoward happening or not?

I have a marriage certificate from 1838 where the bride (lets call her Ann Smith) has said she doesn't know her father's christian name. It is entered on the certificate like this the late -------- Smith (christian name unknown) Her actual surname is VERY rare but I haven't found anything else out about her in spite of going through the relevant Parish Records. I can imagine her embarassment when it came to filling in the cert. I suppose young people marrying in those days would have no idea beforehand that this information would be requested? Anne

Thanks for this in sight as my grandad was born out of wedlock and on his marriage certificate in 1902 his dad was down as Arthur Dalton a chemist and the only one I can find was 21yrs old when he was born. His mum was married till 1871 when her husband died my grandad was born when she was a widow then she gave him up to her new man's sister

Carol Something similar happened to me. On my g grandfathers marriage certificate his father is down as David Taylor yet on his birth certificate there is no father mentioned. Several certificates later (!), I discover his mother was married to a Joseph Taylor who died before my ggf was born and then married a David Mitchell shortly after he was born! On the census, he sometimes has the surname Taylor and sometimes Mitchell! Debby

Even as recently as 1934 one of my grandfathers did this! On his marriage certificate, his 'father' is down with the same name as himself, with 'bricklayer' and 'deceased'. When I ordered his birth certificate, I discovered that not only was the 'father' column blank, but that my grandfather had his mother's surname, and she was unmarried. I often wonder whether my grandmother knew! Mandy :)

Illegitimate children often told little white lies when it came to naming the father, especially if their mother was at the wedding -- no need to cause unnecessary embarrassment, since it didn't seem to matter. But it would be enough to make the surname match and to say he was deceased, so they'd usually tend to make the other details truthful. Have to wonder if Emily was in service with an accountant Of course she wouldn't still be there at the time of the christening, so you wouldn't really expect to find any record. Naming the child after the father was another very common way of leaving a clue, so it wouldn't be at all surprising if the father's name was really George.

Yes: not uncommon for illegitimate children - for obvious reasons: there stands John Smith at his wedding, with his proud mother Mary Smith, and when it comes to his certificate he doesn't want to say his father is William Brown. One strategy for John is to use the details of his maternal grandfather (Mary Smith's father, say David Smith) - it might have been that family who had a part in bringing him up - and if David Smith is dead there's no embarrassment that he's not at the wedding. Another, less common, strategy is for John Smith to use the forename of his real father and his own surname: e.g. use William Smith as his invented father. So even an invented name may sometimes tell us something. And the third problem is another common one: when John Smith first meets the delightful Jane Jones he exaggerates something a tad. Perhaps he says his father was a professional (but is now dead) which would increase his social status but also explain why he didn't apparently have all the trappings of that better class - because his father died. Then of course as their romance blossoms John Smith gets rather stuck with this story, and marries Jane Jones without telling her. What a web we men can weave! But isn't it refreshing that we don't have such problems nowadays. (And by the way I'm only riding a bicycle for my health and because my Rolls-Royce is in the garage!).

I sent for birth certificate for my man who gave his father as Elijah but this must have been incorrect because my money was refunded

Sorry to but in, Just to thank you for the insight to one of my puzzles. My gggrandmother stated just 'Richard' on her marriage as father I knew her father was James and it was her uncle that was her father. Now it makes me more certain that as I htought her father had died. Now just to find his death so many of them. Thanks Germaine

My great grandmother did the same thing. She listed her father as Micah Mead, a soldier, on her marriage certificate and I looked everywhere for him. I eventually found her on the 1851 census with her real father, Giles Mead, a pauper on the parish. He'd died by the time she married in London in 1868 and I wonder if she told her husband the truth.

Fiances g grandfather George VAUGHAN was born 1834 in Luppitt, Devon as base child of Emily VAUGHAN. I have found him on 2 parish record indexes for Luppitt. Emily married in 1837 to John GRIMES and George kept his own name. I have him on a census listed as stepson. On his marriage certificate, there is a father listed as George VAUGHAN (deceased) Rank or profession Accountant. As well as his birth status, most of the family are labourers and domestic servants, so I wonder where he got accountant from? Was this a common occurrence back then.

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