Genealogy Chat

I have a couple of mysteries in my tree. (1) One couple were married and had about 6 children. They were married in 1881 - I have the certificate. Yet one of the middle children was listed as illegitimate and the mother signed the certificate using the name from her previous marriage (she was widowed) instead of her current married name. In all other certificates she signed her name correctly. (2) Another couple were married and had twins, the certificates say the mother's name, then describe her as 'the wife of' and give her husbands name, then say '(I declare he is not the father of the child)'. How would a registrar have known? The married couple went on to have more children. (3) Yet another couple 100% never married at all. The woman was already married (I can't find her husband's death certificate but he could have died) and had her first few children using her partner's surname, pretending they were married. One of their children died in 1879 and on his death certificate she signed her name that way again. Yet a few months later they had another son, and that child was listed as illegitimate where his siblings were not. So were all his younger siblings. At that point the woman reverted to using her maiden name or her name from her first marriage, alternately. Any idea how these things could have happened? All couples stayed together until they died. Would be interested to know your thoughts, Frances

PS I did type the message in paragraphs but for some reason GR doesn't always post it that way - sorry.

Not a lot changes, does it Frances? And they call it the permissive society today? Jay

I think the difference is that nowadays they don't have to lie on the certificates! ;)

Regarding what the registrar did or didn't know - registrars only record what they are told. They didn't ask to see wedding rings, or certificates, or proof of identity - they wrote down the names they were told. But usually an illegitimate child born to a married woman would be automatically considered to be the husband's child unless he objected.

Frances, GR ignores formating in the very first message, so all your hard work to make your message look nice is lost. The trick is to put the words 'See Below' as your first post. Dont send this just yet (as some people will start replying with sarcy remarks...!) but continue to type in the rest of your message with all your paragraph formatting.. When you are ready, highlight everything after 'See Below' and click cut. Send your message (it now just has See Below) and immediately click on send reply. Paste your text into here, final check on the formatting and send Voila....!