Genealogy Chat

I have just received a marriage certificate from 1840s for my relative Thomas Wood. The strange thing is his father is listed as William Armstrong!? Surely if Thomas was adopted he would adopt his new fathers surname or if his mother remarried he would still list his birth father. Has anyone come across this and if sure what conclusions did you draw?

Perhaps Thomas was illegitimate but his father acknowledged his existance (perhaps paid maintenance for him), and so Thomas acknowledged his father on his marriage certificate. This is just a suggestion, as I don't have a definite answer. Have you found them together on a census, or is Thomas just with his mother? Kath. x

perhaps he was illegitimate and was brought up by william Amstrong so he considered him as his father. there was no formal adoption in those days

I would sat that Wood was his mother's surname & he was illegitimate. William Armstrong could have been his father, but his mother wasn't married to him? Angela

How do you know that isn't what happened? I mean - how do you know that his mother DIDNT remarry, a Mr Wood, who brought him up and whose name he took, but when asked by the Registrar for his father's name, he told the truth? Or - if he was the illegitimate child of Miss Wood and Mr Armstrong, then his 'working' surname would be Wood, but his father's name would be Armstrong. OC

I know you're interested in an 1840's marriage, but when or if my daughter marries she will use her surname, Coulby. But her fathers surname is Ramsey. We seperated when she was small and when i re -married she deed polled( with her dads permission) her name to my new married name. So its all above board but the surnames will be different.

I have a marriage cert from 1872 with the same thing. The story goes, his mother died giving birth to her second child and grandma took him in and as she didnt like his father changed his surname to hers, which was mothers maiden name Sylvia