General Chat

My nans parents were not married when she was born and they never told her. When she came to get married herself she used her fathers name, when in fact she should have used her mothers maiden name, So my question is was my grandparents marriage legally binding ?

Your name is the name you are known by, Their is no law banning anyone from using any name they choose providing it's not for fraudulent purposes, So the marriage is legal

until recent times a child was not given a surname on the birth cert, the child's surname was inferred usualy taken from the fathers named as listed on the birth cert, where a father is not named then it is inferred from the mothers known name at the time of registration

Roy

As far as I know if the child is born illegitimately and the parents later each other it legitimises that birth without re registering.

A man does not have to be married to register a child by his partner. However the mother cannot register the man as father without his consent. It is quite likely that your grandmother's birth certificate shows her father's name even if her parents were not then married.

Even if a man was already married to another woman he could nevertheless register a child by his current partner as his own.

ZZzzz, that's not quite correct the legitimacy act 1926 allowed such births to be re-registered in order to legitimise the child

Roy

Roy. Thank you for putting me right on that one :-)

Rollo
I'm not sure if there were hard and fast rules or if some registrars were a bit 'picky', but I have a birth certificate of an illegitimate child b. 1882, where no father is named in the appropriate column, but the informant was the father and his qualification as such is noted.


Gwyn

I've always believed you can use whatever name you like - as long as you're not trying to con anyone.
So, if your nan believed XXX was her surname - and it was the name she was known by - then all was legal :-D

Ny great gran happily called herself Mrs P on all her children's birth certificates - but she didn't marry Mr P until after 9 of the ten children had been born! :-0

For info on MBD certs its always handy to keep the link below in your favourites and use it as a reference

http://home.clara.net/dixons/Certificates/indexbd.htm

From the Marriage section

Names of Bride and Groom

Column two is the name and surname of the bride and groom at the date of the marriage. Those last 6 words are crucial - the name used at the date of marriage is not necessarily the one on the birth certificate of the bride or groom. These days the words "Name changed by Deed Poll" or "formerly known as ................." or "otherwise" indicate that the bride or groom has changed their name since birth but that is a fairly recent phenomenon. In the past, the bride or groom were simply asked for the names they were known by. Remember that it was not necessary to produce any proof of the use of a name.

Names were changed in all sorts of ways. One of the most common would be by the bride or groom using a stepfathers surname. Or a person might use a mothers maiden name or indeed a name chosen at random because they didn't like the one they were born with or because they wanted their original identity hidden for a variety of reasons.

First names also frequently changed - the child named Albert Henry is always known as James for some reason and that is the name he marries in.

In theory it should be possible to use the column showing fathers name and surname as a guide to the original surname of the bride or groom but fathers details too are not always accurate.

Roy

Thankyou all so much for the information, very much appreciated :-)

When parents married check births in that time should legitimise here birth,also check on original entry are there any hand written words beside it

Reprise:

A man could and frequently did acknowledge a child and as informant enter his name as father on the birth certificate. This affected all social classes including the aristocracy where rules of inheritance of a title and lands often rested on being a child "of the body".

A man did not ( and still does not ) have to be married to a woman in order for the birth to name him as father.

Registrars had no power to reject any such registration.

After 1925 and with various extension since a birth record may be changed to reflect biological fact. For instance if a woman has one or more children by husband A, then some more by (B) while still married to (A) then these may be registered as children of (A). After she divorces and marries (B) the births may be re-registered with the father as (B). The original record remains in the index but cannot be used for getting passports etc etc.

A common reason in the early part of the C20 for men not marrying their wives (but still registering their children as their own) was that they were already married and could not get a divorce. A lot simply took a chance and remarried anyway.

Both in 1918/19 and 1945/47 there was a great deal of social chaos as men returned home to find some cuckoos in the nest and it is worth remembering this in the context of family history. I am informed by some very good sources that not much more than a half of babies delivered in the UK 1942-1948 were the biological child of the named father,

Not everybody had the same idea as to how to keep the home fires burning.

Thankyou :-) My nans name was Gillman her mothers maiden name on her birth certificate and on her wedding certificate she had put herself as Blenkins which was her fathers name.They were not married then but Her mother and father did marry after having 4 children and when they married they went on to have another child. I was curious to know , as i had no idea how this would stand . But I am happily sattisfied, Thank you all so much :-)