Genealogy Chat

I have my grandfather's birth and marriage certificates , which I know are correct in terms of dates and place. The problem is that the father's name on the marriage certificate does not match the father' s name on the marriage certificate. I am 90% certain that the birth certificate is correct but, for some reason, the father's name on the marriage certificate is exactly the same as my grandfather's name. Is this a simple transcription error or could there be more to it? Any ideas?

This could have been the vicars fault. He may have misheard the name your relative quoted or he may have just got confused and doubled up on the grooms name - it won't be the first time I have seen this happen. You have to remember that as in all walks of life, some vicars were better records keepers than others. Cheers, Horatia

Is it a proper copy of the original or a transcription? If it's a transcription, phone Southport and get them to check for you. Janice

Errors were made and by a variety of officials - the surname of my grandmother is incorrect on her marriage certificate. It is recorded on the cert (and therefore also in the GRO index) as McDonald, although her name was actually Mc Donough. It was a registry office wedding, conducted by the registrar. Jay

On my Father in Laws birth certificate Father is named James but on his marriage it says Nathan?, Nathan is his true given name and James what he preferred to call himself, Took me years to find this out and a lot of searching..

The vicar made a mistake on our marriage certificate so it still happens. He recorded my husband's address as no.9, when he lived at no.2. We did not notice until afterwards. I hope none of our future descendants wander around taking photos of no.9 thinking we lived there!!!!

I've just reported a name-conflict to GRO (that is as well as the one on my own wedding cert, where they have my maiden name wrong!). The mid-19th-century bride has signed her name, with beautifully clear and elegant handwriting, as ASHPOOL, but the vicar has determinedly entered the family name (bride & her father) as ASHPOLE. The name appears in censuses as ASHPOOL. Wait and see if I get any feedback. They seem to have ignored my notification of my own name-error. Christine

Christine In my experience, the GRO take a very dim view of being told they got anything WRONG! After much expense and faffing about, I finally tracked a marriage cert down to a local RO. This was NOT on the GRO index. They had previously told me, after an expensive search, that it was 'almost impossible' for any entry not to have reached the GRO. I sent them a copy of the cert and got no answer. I wrote again and eventually received an extremely stiff reply, stating through gritted teeth, that 'this marriage was not reported to the GRO at the time it took place. I have since found five more such 'almost impossible' events and I have given up bothering the GRO about it. Hope they take your correction in a more affable mood! Olde Crone

I have the same trouble my grandfather's birth cert says Joseph Banov but his marriage cert says Joseph Banor, we have all been brought up with the surname Banor so god only knows what happened here.