Genealogy Chat

This is a general question about the information recorded. I have some marriage certificates they have names of the fathers of the couple who married. One certificate has 'deceased' for one of the fathers. Was this standard practice when a father was dead?
I am asking because I am trying to decide if a father on another certificate was alive at the time of the marriage. If it was common practice to list if the father was dead, can I hope/assume the person was alive on the date of his son's marriage if it doesn't say deceased?

It is not always recorded that the father is deceased. Sometimes those that are recorded as deceased are in fact fictitious in the cases of illegitimate children who wish to keep face.

And sometimes 'Deceased' could be wishful thinking on the part of the bride/groom! :-D

Also depends on if the bride and groom were asked the question

The father would be recorded as 'deceased' if the information was volunteered by the bride/groom, or if the person filling in the cert asked whether he was........

And, as has already been said, such info was not always entirely true.

Deceased fathers were often invented to cover illegitimacy, and estranged fathers might be recorded as such..........

Have you looked for a death for the 'father' in question?

I think it depends if the person officiating at the marriage was told that the father was deceased. Some answer with the name others answer with the name and then add but he is deceased.

There are then those who do not know who their father is. Often illegitimate children made up a name for their father.

So you can't be 100% certain that the father was alive if it doesn't say deceased.

I have just purchased a marriage certificate in order to find out a father's name and whether or not he was deceased. The certificate has in the Father's Name column the name Nicholas which has been crossed out and the name James added, so I am none the wiser. The family came from Ireland in the 1850's and I have not found them with a father.

The family is Irish, the son Patrick Shaughnessy is the groom in this marriage, came to England before 1867 as that is when he got married at 21, the marriage cert lists Michael Shaughnessy as his father and I have his baptism record from Co Galway, and know his father was Michael Shaughnessy, I have no clue whether Patrick came to England on his own or if other family members came with him. I have looked for a death in England and Ireland and there are more than enough dead Michael Shaughnessys, in the relevant time period, but I have no way to decide if any of them are Patrick's father, if I knew he was still alive in 1867 it would narrow the field. I don't see any indication of forgery or skullduggery at least not yet. I can't believe he was an only child but Irish records are so...........complicated.

No-one suggested forgery....................

Did Patrick give any occupation for his father?

Who witnessed the marriage?

Is the mother named on the baptism record?

You're right not forgery but perhaps fictitious which I fully understand if there are legitimacy or other socially awkward issues.
Yes the father's occupation is given, the bride's sister was one witness and another person who must be someone significant to the family as I have seen him on censuses as a boarder.
Yes the mother is on the baptism. Are these details significant?
All 4 marriage certificates are from the same church, 2 list deceased fathers, they are all for extended members of the same family, the fathers were different generations and would have only been related by the marriage of various children.

My g/g/grandfather was not on good terms with some of his children following his 2nd marriage
and on several of their marriage certificates he is listed as 'deceased' when he was alive and well and still producing more children!!!

The Truth is Out There, Trust No One :-D ;-) <3