Genealogy Chat

Hi there, I need help reading a name and occcupation on a marriage certificate. I can email the scan if anyone is interested. Thanks, Crista

Hi Crista I'll have a look if you want to email it to me - can't promise to be much help but I'll try !! Esta

Hi Crista, Have e-mailed you. I hope I can help in some way. Margaret

Crista, if you email the GRO, I'm sure they will help you. I have found them helpful. Joy

Thanks for helping everyone. I have sent out 5 emails so I probably have enough helpers now. Thanks, Crista

Crista, E-mail me, I can't promise anything, as I have enough trouble reading my own certs. However, one turn deserves another, you have helped me so let me return the favour. Amanda in Ontario

Had any luck? I've had some success with difficult certificates so am happy to have a look if you like xxx Annie

Hi Annie and Amanda, I'll get back to you if I need more help. I think we've figured out the groom's father's occupation is Superior Barrack Sergeant" but are still not sure on the male witness' surname. Thanks, Crista

Crista the thomas herbert one or the jospeh?

Hi Zoe, I think it is Thomas Herbert TOOK. What do you think? Margaret

all I can make out is **rr***rh and I'm not even sure its an h at the end

sorry - just realised I've been trying to read the registrars name ;oP I'd say Tock the third letter looks like an O but the way it joins to the next letter is totally different - it leads from the bottom rather than loops from the top. I was unsure at first about the first letter - but looking at his handwriting for all the other possible (C, L, F) it can't be any of them so I'd go with T Last letter is definitely a K not H as the upright doesnt go as far upwards as it does on all his other letters

Hate to say this but I think it's Cock. The first letter doesn't look the same as the T in Thomas and leads up from the bottom. I've tried searching for Thomas Herbert *ock on FreeBMD and the only reasonable matches are for Thomas Herbert Cock. One of these is born a year later on the Isle of Wight. Seems a strange coincidence. Crista

Crista I did think it was Cock too - but if you look at the C on church on the line above and on CQMS in teh occupation its totally different - the bottom of the C has a distinctive curve on it rather than a sharp stop and then line up to teh next letter. Is a coincidence that theres a Cock in the BMD tho Did you check the 1901 for him?

Hi Zoe, Can't find him in 1901. I assume he's a friend of the groom and fighting the Boer War though. The Thomas Herbert Cock I found would be the same age as the groom. The M and the S in CQMS are unlike the other Ss and Ms. I wonder if that was added by someone else. They seem to have taken greater care writing out the names than the other parts of the cert. Crista

yaaay - I have him on th ancestry index on the Isle of Wight in 1901 - Thomas Cock Fort Albert, Fresh Water (it appears to be seperate quarters like dorms) Thomas Cock 25 Redruth, Cornwall, England   Freshwater Hampshire - 2nd Corp RES(?) others in same "household" Wallace Barnitt 25 Prestwich, Lancashire, England   Freshwater Hampshire John Crowle 26 Camborne, Cornwall, England   Freshwater Hampshire Henry Hay 29 Woolwich, Kent, England   Freshwater Hampshire Frederick Hodgson 25 Ireland   Freshwater Hampshire Charles Howard 27 Ireland   Freshwater Hampshire Harry Maskell 27 Basingstoke, Hampshire, England   Freshwater Hampshire John Stott 24 Limehouse, London, England   Freshwater Hampshire Richard Villiers 29 Barking, Essex, England   Freshwater Hampshire Charles Williams 27 Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England   Freshwater

Thanks Zoe. That must be the one. I was hoping one of the witnesses would give me a clue about the origins of Margaret Murray Murray, but it looks like one was a friend of the groom and the other was his sister. Oh well. Crista

Crista I cant see any sign of her with a father called Edward on the 1891 or 1901 as either Margaret M or Margaret. the closest is a Margaret M Murray close in age but her father is William a Retired Major There's a good chance with a name like Murray that your connection is somewhere in Scotland have to dash I just popped back in to the office briefly on way home from pub I'llmai lyou the census next week Zoe

Thanks again or your help Zoe. Mum seems to think that Margaret was Irish as she remembers her talking about Killarney, but you know how that goes. You have to take those stories with a pinch of salt. No idea if she had any children with William Ferguson, but on her second marriage to my GG grandfather she had 2 sons called Kenneth Aubrey and Alexander Dalkeith. Those do sound a bit Scottish to me, especially as Dalkeith is a place outside Edinburgh. The only references to Dalkeith in a name I've found is the Earl of Dalkeith and I sincerely doubt she was related to that family. With William missing in 1901 and Margaret appearing out of nowhere in 1902 I can only assume they met on the ship back from South Africa and she was a nurse. Thanks again everyone, Crista

Um ... surely the name on the certificate is Mary Margaret Murray ... or am I missing something?