Genealogy Chat

does anyone know the answer to this, if parents put on a childs birth cert, in 1914 in this case, that they are married and its found out years later that they arnt
would the children have to change their surname.
for eg we have mary graham born 1914 parents margaret graham formerly taylor and herbert graham.
this isnt true they werent married till 1918.
it should have read herbert graham and margaret taylor.
or would the fathers name be missed off all together, anyone know please

Column 4 on the certificate;

An entry here depends on whether the parents of the child were a married couple or not.

Where the parents were married to one another, the father's details had to be entered in the register and only one parent needed to sign the register - in column 7 (this may be some other informant).

If the parents were not married to one another, then Column 4 (father's name) and Column 6 (his occupation) will be blank.

If the parents were not married to each other but both attended the register office together, then details can be entered in Column 4 and Column 6 and both parents can sign the register


Technically the surname of an illegitimate child should be the same as the mother's at the time.


In your case Mary should be Mary Taylor. She could have been re-registered at a later date.

In all likelyhood her parents pretended to be married, no proof of marriage had to be given to the registrar when registering a birth.

Glen

thats very interesting, thanks
going to check the birth cert now.
margaret taylor marys mum went on to have another child in 1917 still not married she called him bernard taylor using her surname and left fathers name blank
its so confusing
marys born 1914 with the same father that her mum marrys in 1918
bernards father is a puzzle

Anyone can change their name and call theirselves what they like.
My parents wern't married and my mother called herself by the same name as my father, Thus my birth cert reads my parents names.
It wasnt til my mother died and 18 yrs later on doing my family history found out they werent married.
The same with my grandmother, she was a roman catholic and her 1st marriage floundered. They parted, catholic marriages were virtually impossible to get a divorce from, not without asking the Pope for permission.
There was a law years ago and if it's still in force, if you had not seen or heard from your spouse for 7 years, you could delcare him dead, and remarry on that premise.
My grandmother lived with her new partner, took his name and went on to have ten children all with the new name she had taken on.
They didnt marry until 24 years later.
If you knew the hassles I have had with this, I wasted 2 years looking for 2 marriage that either one didnt take place and another a long long time after.
This can happen with christenings as well.
Pre 1837 parish records sometimes just show christening dates and no birth dates.
On a census record the birth date could be from anything up to 5 years out from the christenings. If you actually see the christening records you may fond out that 3 or 4 children have been christened at the same time and they could be as old as 5 or more and occassionally there are adult christenings.
So the answer is you can rename yourself what ever you feel you should be.
I have kept to the same maiden name I have carried for over 50 years, all my offocial records are known in that name and I am very happy with it,

Carol

I have just checked my Dad's birth cert and he was born in 1933. His parents were present at registration .COL 4 Fathers name Arthur Henry Pelling ,COL 5 mothers name Florence Pelling formerly Palmer. This is strange because her maiden name was Pickin. COL 6 fathers occupation-Taxi Driver, COL 7 fathers name and address.
The funny thing is that they didn't marry until 1940.
My Dad's siblings also have discrepences on their birth certs. Sometimes mother used her middle name of Emmeline .But always Pelling on all 7 children. The first 2 she used the maiden name of Palmer. The next 2 maiden name of Day, The next son she used the maiden name of Cotton and the last 2 she used her real maiden name of Pickin. This was after 1940 once she had married Arthur,so this time she told the truth.

I don't know what she was hiding ,but i'm sure there are lots more like this out there.

thats interesting thankyou

its just margaret graham put formerly taylor in 1914

when she wasnt married till 1918. it seems too much detail to add the formerly, its a definate lie as opposed to just calling yourself what you want. these people dont make it easy for future generation do they
thanks

thanks donna too

goodness me didnt know this was so common it makes it so hard tracing their relatives now as you dont know what name they would have married or died in.

Denise

Don't forget that Margaret didn't fill out the certificate herself ..... she gave the information to the Registrar (or his clerk!), who asked certain questions and then filled out the certificate in a certain format.

The conversation probabl went something like this

Registrar ..... "What is your name?"
MG .... "Margaret Graham"
Registrar .... "What was your maiden name?"
MG ..... "Taylor"

so he then used the standard format Graham formerly Taylor


sylvia

Good point, Sylvia. And if the woman actually wasn't married (and assuming she wanted to seem "respectable"), she was hardly going to admit to being an unmarried mother who was cohabiting with her baby's father, I'm sure.

My grandmother lied at the time of registering my father's birth. He was born and registered in April 1919 and my grandmother married my grandfather in August 1922 - 4 months after his first wife died.

I know my father knew about this and he knew that he was illegitimate. But, as his parents married I assume he was then legitimised (although I'm not sure when this law came into force). I remember he used to get very angry at anyone using the word ba**ard.

What really gets my goat is when a woman remarries and she gives the name of her first husband as her surname not mentioning her maiden name at all. I searched for years for a relly who did that. Frustrating!

I have the same problem my father and his sister have on their birth certificates that the mother was formerly giving you the impression they were married however he was married to somebody else, however when he died in his will he said the mother of these two children was his housekeeper but acknowledge the children as his? Sheila

Caroline.
Thats a interesting point about the couple who were married after 40 yrs . They couldn't marry until his first wife had died. The children all had his name, but he was still married to someone else. She was still alive so he couldn't marry.
Thats what may have happend to my grandparents. They had 5 children and on the 6th child got married.
Still doesn't explain my gran's different maiden names.

Donna