Genealogy Chat

Hello, I apologise if this has been posted before but I am new to the site.

On a birth certificate, under mother's name, if it says 'formerly' does that mean she was married before?

Eg...if a woman was born as smith, and her married name is jones, and it says smith formerly brown...does that mean she was married to a Brown previously?

I know that the mother, at the time, was pretending to be married to jones, but in fact they didn't get married until 20 years after the birth.

Thanks (if you can follow that!)

I believe on English certificates formerly usually refers to the mother's maiden surname.

On Scottish birth certificates it gives the mother's married name followed by m.s (for maiden surname) and then states her maiden surname. Also Scottish certs. give date and place of parents marriage.

Thanks for your quick reply

Her maiden name was definitely Smith, and she (eventually) married Jones, but the children's birth certificates state Smith formerly Brown. That's what's confusing me.

On my gt gt grandfathers birth cert it says Smith formally Brown (maiden name) they were not married she was still married to Jones but that was not mentioned.

She did marry Smith 25 years later, so it all depends whether they wanted to tell the truth or not...this cert was also registered by the father, had the mother registered it...maybe it would have said something different?