Genealogy Chat

Hello Jenny I have a similar thing as not only was the father's name struck out but also his occupation and the child's name was altered to the mother's maiden name. The parish records had also been altered, although this time the father's occupation was recorded differently!! The birth cert in the family was written with the amended details and I only discovered this by sending for the original cert from the GRO. The details were altered by the registrar following a sworn declaration by the 'father'. In my case the child was taken in by another family at the age of 6 months and it's been really hard trying to find anything out about his natural mother ( a Hill!) and his so called natural father who doesn't exist on any census records but is found on the electoral list for 3 years. Hope you have more luck than me. Jackie

Hi, It's possible that it wasn't the correct father and that the vicar knew that. It's also possible that, as he was illegitimate, he wasn't "entitled" to name a father and this was know to the vicar. Some clergymen were stricter about the rules than others. Gwynne

I'm researching my friends family tree for her and I'm finding some very curious things on the certificates I'm getting could anyone please help. I ordered James Parsons-White's birth certificate from the GRO. when it came back the name for James given was just James Parsons even though it is in the Index under White with James's middle name showing as Parsons. No fathers name is registered but his mother was Eliza White. No married name given so I assumed James was ilegitimate but the father was known. I checked the parish records and found James's marriage entry where his father Aquilla Parsons is entered and his occupation but then the details are crossed out. Why would this have been done? I'm assuming that Aquilla was his dad as I found a marriage of Aquilla to Eliza in 1874 after James's birth. Can anyone explain this please.