Genealogy Chat

My certificates have given me the maiden name of my great grandmother but I cannot find a birth for her or a marriage to my great grandfather. I'm beginning to wonder if they lived in sin! Viv.

when i got g.grans cert.of her marriege,i found g.granddad could'nt write,next to his name was this:his x mark, and it seems they had there 1st child 4 and a half years before they were married!! and when they were married they were expecting there 2nd child! in the family bible i have passed down from g.grans mother there is a 5 year gap between the two births,so it all fits in!!!!! i wonder if they lived together first?? what a sin in those days!! well,she never told anyone,not that i know of,so she must of taken the secret to her grave,thinking nobody would find out,little did she know her g.granddaughter would find out years later!!!!!!!! she died when i was 11,and i always remember her as being very religious,every sunday she would watch the sunday service on the tele with her hymn book and bible,don't think she could get to church,she had a walking stick. at the age 11,she seemed very old to me,well she was 88 when she died. chris. ps. does anyone remember the Giles cartoon in one of the papers(can't remember which one) well,the grandma in that used to remind me of her!

Hmm Viv. It was such a bizarre set of circumstances that set this off. I was looking at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site to see whether anyone of the rare surname was on there and there was only one. A civilian killed when a bomb hit an air raid shelter, she was aged 86 in 1941. "Who is this?" I thought, not recognising the Christian name so I sent off for her death cert and it said widow of MY GR GR GRANDAD's name, a chef, from France. I still couldn't believe it so I looked on freebmd and found a marriage with someone of my gr gr grandad's name in 1883. That's the cert that arrived - and it IS him. He died in 1904. My gr gr grandmother died in 1918. She was described as "widow of" and the other lady who died in 1941 was described as "widow of". In my great grandad's diary he has separate addresses for his mum and dad explaining that because dad was a chef he had a room in whatever hotel he was working in and because it was in London far away from the family home he stayed there while he was working. OH YEAH? xx Ann xx

Oh, Ann! You have really made my day and all I can do is giggle. I do hope for his sake that his 'wives' never found out about each other! I just hope he had them ensconced in different counties!!! Thank you for sharing. I hope you get it all sorted soon, keep me posted. Regards Viv.

Viv I don't know - waaaaaaaaaaah. He came here from France with his 'wife', they had 8 children. He married an English woman in 1883 and had at least another two childen I've found. These children have EXACTLY the same names as two of his French offspring (my line is from the French lot). The daughters were born in the same year! And the surname is very rare. This was before the Entente Cordiale (1904) so maybe his French marriage wasn't recognised here. Although his personal Entente was a bit too Cordiale ... It's cleared up one mystery though. I said to a very old Aunt that I'd found a marriage of - and gave the name of the daughter in 1898 - and she was quite emphatic that Rose never married. SO it must be the one with the identical name. I haven't told my Aunty about this discovery and I might not as I don't want to open a can of worms. I told my brother who laughed his socks off. He said gr gr grandad must have thought he'd got away with it, little thinking a 120 years later he'd be rumbled! Hope You get the right person next time Jean Ann

I've got one early as well - only problem its the wrong one! Nothing to do with GRO, I ordered it on the off chance Id picked the right person. Its a shame you can't view the certificates before wasting £7, I guess its back to the drawing board and try to figure out who Im looking for Jean

Ann, LOL! Are you on the legitimate or non- legitimate side? (Excuse the spelling). Tell Hubby you could be two wives- give him hell !!!!! :-) :-) Double the trouble! Viv.

My husband says Imagine having TWO wives *Wonder what he means by that?*

Ann, He obviously didn't like living in sin! LOL. :-) Viv.

And mine :) :) :) een though one proved my gr gr grandad was a Bigamist. (naughty boy) Ann

Isn't it a great feeling? Viv.

mine too!!!!

My certificates were due to be posted on 27th April. They came today, YIPPEE. 8-) Thank you GRO. Viv.