Genealogy Chat

Does anyone have experience of certificates with errors on? From my great grandfather's birth certificate I have his parents names George Fludder & Jane A Chilton. I've then sent for their marriage certificate and got their respective fathers names; George Fludder and Thomas Chilton. Now I am having a major problem tracking down Jane's birth - I can't find her on any census living with a Thomas Chilton and I can't find a birth of anything like the right era with Thomas as the father. However, I have found a census with a Jane A Chilton of exactly the right age, in the right area, living with father George Chilton and mother Elizabeth Chilton. Interestingly the marriage was witnessed by an Elizabeth Chilton...does anyone think it possible the fathers names got switched on the certificate?

I have one marriage cert where both fathers names have been crossed out - one has been amended correctly but not the other one.

I would say VERY possible!
I haven't got the certificate, but I've looked up the original entry for the marriage of my grandfather's 'best mate'.

His name was George Croyle - an unusual name - and I know he was married to Hilda, but in the registers, the only marriage to George Croyle at all at the right time was an Edward Edwards! This was in 1929 - Surely not the very first Gay marriage?!!
I can only presume she was Hilda Edwards, and it was recorded incorrectly.

Yes there are lots of mistakes on certs.
Did you order it from GRO.
Every 3 months the local reg office sent their bmds information to GRO . Perhaps errors are made at this time.

Or the minister writing down the information on the marriage cert made a mistake and nobody could read ,noticed it.

Quite possibly. Have you found the Fludders?

Yes there are mistakes my Fathers Birth Cert. say's his mother is Alice Ann when infact I have since found out it is Mary Alice. It caused a lot of problems at first as both my parents are deceased and no one knew her name. Fortunatley it is sorted out now but for the longest time I didn't want to accept all the info people were giving me as I was so sure it must be wrong. But as I did know his siblings there were to many dates and names that matched to doubt it. Kathy

The information on any certificate is only as good as that provided at the time. Many people were illiterate and no checks were made at the time on the accuracy of information provided. It was not uncommon for names to be swapped about or for people to adopt their second name.

Another possibility was that the child was 'adopted' by another member of the family. I have come across this too. If the family were from a relatively small village it is sometimes worth doing a mini one name study to see if you can find the various connections. The name Fludder doesn't sound that common, so it might be worth digging a bit further.

Father's names on marriage certificates could sometimes be made up, especially if there was some illegitimacy in the family - I have just one of those this week!

However, bear in mind it is all to easy to convince yourself there has been an error, just because something doesn't fit. You have to consider the possibility that you have the wrong certificate. Where possible try and corroborate your evidence from more than one source,

Can you quote some dates and places? It could be that a fresh pair of eyes might turn something up for you.

My dads mum was married twice.Her 2nd husband registered the births of their first two chldren and her name on their certs is Annie .however her name was Emma Ann but as hubby called her Annie thats what he registered.

Maybe her dad is Thomas George Chilton.

i have same problem with my grandad his mother on his cert says margaret owen and his siblings mother says sarah lewis as mum but he was in the middle age wise and i cant find marriages for either woman to his dad and there address was same to so im baffled lol
karen

Sometimes "errors" are fabrications. This one made me a little sad. One of our relatives gave his father's name as Alexander, an auctioneer, which surprised me as we come from extremely humble stock!. Tried to find him with no luck. Then got in touch with his grand-daughter only to find his mother was unmarried and no-one knew of a father. Well, if you make it up you might as well go for it!
Jan

It is worth phoning the local records office that has copies of the parish registers and asking them to check the parish register.

As you will have date and place of marriage from the cert this is pretty easy for them to check and some of them do it for free.

I did this as I had a cert with dubious ages, my g-grandfather was 23 on the marriage cert which didn't fit with anything else but 32 on the parish register so just a case of someone copying down the info wrong.

However there is always the possibility that the father's name was "invented" to avoid any stigma of illegitimacy.

My husband's grandmother was Fannie King everywhere but her marriage certificate, where she appears as Annie (it was only through kind people on this board that I found her at all).

On another marriage cert, both the father of the bride and groom are shown as Georges, but the second one shown was definitely a John.

Christine,

I think that reinforces my earlier comment that the info on the cert was only as good as that provided, and no checks were ever made.

Fannie / Annie ? Easily misheard.....!

Many thanks everyone. There are some really useful ideas here, as well as just giving me the confidence to doubt the certificates when appropriate!