Genealogy Chat

I've just found the marriage of my gggrandparents (I think) but My gggranfathers surname is wrong. I've been looking for the marriage of John Garbett to Rebecca Hampton registered in the stourbridge/Dudley area in around 1891 when my gggrandmother was 18. I've found a marriage of Rebecca Hampton to a John Corbett in 1891 registered in Stourbridge. I wondered if a lot of marriages were mis-trancribed?I can't find any other marriages in thsi area for hampton and Garbett. Could this be the one? Would I be better going to the local registrar to see if it's diffrent there? but I only have the GRO index not the full marriage details

Hi jennie Where did you find the marriage? on freebmd or actually on the gro index on 1837 online. If on freebmd the name Garbett could quite easily be mistranscribed as Corbett especially if the writing on the original index is bad. The only way to find out would be to order the certificate, the chances are that if the brides name is right and the grooms name is sort of right and is in the right time and right area then it is probably the right one. I myself transcribe for freebmd and know how awful the writing can be sometimes! Regards Sharon

for church weddings the vicars had to copy out their register entries onto loose forms and send them in to the GRO. Since they were doing 2 to a page, the copying wasn't always done by the same person who did the actual service. Then at the GRO somebody had to read the handwriting to add the names to the index so if you get a GRO cert it might still be inconclusive, but at least you'll know the church and then you can look for the original

Thanks both for the reply's. I checked FreeBMD and then I checked the GRO index and they both said the same. I thought it may have been an error on FreeBMD as I'm transcribing for FreeCEN at the moment and know how difficult it is to read the writing. I think I'll look in the local archives. I'm only half an hour away from Stourbridge so have no excuse really(apart from I'm scared of the ring road). At least I know Im probably on the right track. Thanks again Jen x P.S I've just read Geralds rant on the general topics board regarding grammer etc. Notice not one comma. I'm a very bad person : D

We tend to blame FreeBMD's transcribers or the quality of the printed Index that they transcribe from but, in reality, the entries are probably transcribed twice in longhand before they are transcribed again by the typesetter/compositor. It's no wonder that errors exist!

I have had no problems with either, if you contact GRO with evidence that their sheets are wrong they will correct them, check first it is a GRO error and not an 1837 online error, although I do believe they are photocopied originals. Transcribing is one of the most difficult jobs I have come across, I recently applied to a site to transcribe the 1861 census, I am about to contact them and say forget it. I am part way through, had to zoom in zoom out several times to try and get the correct name, the writing is atrocious. There are lines through the ages so they are illegible. No wonder there are mistakes, but then I suppose those doing the job at the time never thought that many years down the track their work would be subject to such scrutiny.

It must have been wrong on the copy the FreeBMD transcriber was working from. The copies used are usually the same ones you see on the 1837 site and they are in alphabetical order. Garbett and Corbett would not be on the same page. It could even be the original was wrong if the registrar/minister heard your gggrandfather incorrectly when he gave his name. Many people were illiterate and would not realise that a mistake had been made.

Jenny, to repeat a little of what Robin said, you should go to the District Registrar. They hold the original certificates (signed by your ancestors) These were copied out, usually by hand and these copies were sent to the GRO. Thus the original certificate could be wrong but most errors (and ommisions) were made when the certs were copied and then when they were indexed by the GRO. Going to the local records, apart from them being more accurate and complete, has another advantage, there are vastly fewer names there, so you may find you ancestors marriage unique for that year. Bob