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The large gap between siblings certainly can happen.

My mother was born in 1903, one year after her parents married.

The second child was born in 1911


The third in 1915


and the fourth in 1923 ... and no, he wasn't the child of my mother!

However, my grandparents were pretty young when they married ....grandma was born in 1883 and granddad in 1885, so she was still only 40 when the 4th child was born.


It makes one wonder whether there were miscarriages or still births in between, but nothing was ever said about "lost" babies, and anyone who might know anything is now dead.


sylvia

Hi everyone ...

Many thanks for all your replies. The "daughter of sister" scenario is certainly an interesting idea, but don't think that it's correct in this instance.

However, I had a huge stroke of luck late last night! I searched the family surname on the A2A website - and the first item listed was a record of the divorce between grandmother and her husband. Grandmother's "gentleman" was named, which gives me something else to go on.

I shall definitely get hold of m-i-l's birth/marriage certificates (just waiting to see if a family member has them tucked away somewhere).

Penny

If m-in-l was born to a married woman who had not divorced she would have normally carried the same surname as her mother.
It seems a very big gap between children....but not impossible, so you need to see a copy of m-in-law's birth certificate. This will give you an address to check on the electral roll.
Sometimes a birth father is recorded on a baptism entry.

Gwyn

Amanda has a good suggestion there!

It was pretty common for the child of a daughter to be passed off as the child of her (actual) grandparents.

And moving to another county could help to mask that.



sylvia

Hi Penny,

I would buy the birth cert before going any further.

It is a big age gap, but could she be the daughter of the one born in 1905?

Kind regards
Amanda

Hi Sophie ...

Thanks for your reply.

Unfortunately, no addresses - but mother's married name is quite unusual. Perhaps this would show up on an electoral roll in the 1920s?

Penny

For various reasons, I would rather not post any specific names/places on this thread, but wonder if anyone has any good ideas about how I can get around the following.

My mother-in-law was born in 1925. She had three elder sisters - born 1905, 1906 and 1911 in the neighbouring county. I know of no further siblings.

I found all four sisters in the GRO birth indexes, which allowed me to find the parents' marriage in 1904 in the neighbouring county (both surnames are fairly unusual, so I'm confident that I have the right couple).

However, the number of years that elapsed between the birth of the third and fourth sisters somewhat worried me!

I thought that it could have partially been because of WW1, but then was advised by a family member that the father of the first three sisters "disappeared" some time during this period. The mother then took up with another man (my mother-in-law's biological father). I understand that they never married, but that this man changed his surname to that of her first husband so that my mother-in-law would have the same surname as her sisters.

I don't have my mother-in-law's birth certificate, but going on her GRO entry it will almost certainly show the family surname plus a different forename to that on the 1904 marriage record.

My question - therefore - how do I go about tracing my mother-in-law's biological father???

Any help would be very welcome!

Penny