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Mistakes on Certificates

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  • Mistakes on Certificates

    Are these common on certified copies?

    My parents' marriage certificate shows my maternal grandfather to be John Andrew Dowsett, yet on all the other certs I have he appears as John Arthur Dowsett.

    I am sure this must be a mistake, but just wondered whether others had come across similar errors
    Last edited by Muggins in Sussex; 28-12-07, 13:44.
    Joan died in July 2020.

  • #2
    Yes, I would say very common!

    The further away you get from the original, the more opportunity there is for error, and if the Vicar made the mistake in the first place, then that just gets perpetuated.

    OC

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    • #3
      Fairly common if they have been copied out, I think, Joan. After I had been doing my tree for a while, my family sent me a few copies of certs that my grandfather had acquired when he started doing his tree in the 1970's, and one of them had so many mistakes on it that he never got any further back from that at all. I'm so glad I had already got my own copy of that one or I dread to think how much time I would have wasted trying to find nonexistent people!
      KiteRunner

      Every five years or so I look back on my life and I have a good... laugh"
      (Indigo Girls, "Watershed")

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      • #4
        Thanks OC and KiteRunner

        I suppose it just goes to show how important it is to get all the certificates that you can. Needless to say, it was the cert with the error which arrived first, and sent me in my haste barking up the wrong tree for a while!
        Joan died in July 2020.

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        • #5
          Not to mention the errors created by misinformation from the participants! The non-existent fathers in lieu of "father unknown"; the carefully adjusted ages so that brides weren't too much older than husbands - or v.v.; the enhanced occupations of fathers and grooms...

          Christine
          Researching: BENNETT (Leics/Birmingham-ish) - incl. Leonard BENNETT in Detroit & Florida ; WARR/WOR, STRATFORD & GARDNER/GARNAR (Oxon); CHRISTMAS, RUSSELL, PAFOOT/PAFFORD (Hants); BIGWOOD, HAYLER/HAILOR (Sussex); LANCASTER (Beds, Berks, Wilts) - plus - COCKS (Spitalfields, Liverpool, Plymouth); RUSE/ROWSE, TREMEER, WADLIN(G)/WADLETON (Devonport, E Cornwall); GOULD (S Devon); CHAPMAN, HALL/HOLE, HORN (N Devon); BARRON, SCANTLEBURY (Mevagissey)...

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          • #6
            It does seem to happen a lot. My BM is named JOAN B, but if you look at the BMD listing's her name was listed as JOHN B ,it took weeks to find the fault and because of it the cost in time and money was greater , what ever I said or did they will not change it .
            Sheila
            I think, therefore I am. Descarte

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            • #7
              I've recently seen my great uncle's marriage certificate. It calls his father, my gggrandfather, Charles John but he is there as a witness with his real name, Abraham Charles. His own certificates also differ between Abraham and Charles.

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              • #8
                Sheila

                An entry once made in the Register, cannot be changed except by documented proof that an error has been made.

                Although this is infuriating if it is YOUR relative, you can see why this is the law - who is to say who is right and who is wrong? And you can imagine an era when people would have rushed into the Registrar saying "You forgot to put my father's name on my birth cert, it is Joe Bloggs"

                It isn't the same thing I know, but only today I spotted a correction against a name I was interested in on Ancestry. A relative had corrected a daughter's surname, to that of her mother's husband.

                But the Corrector hadn't done their research properly on this family - the girl had the correct surname, which was her mother's previous MARRIED name, and now she has the wrong surname!! (And she clearly appears as STEP daughter on the census, which ought to have given them a clue!)

                OC

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                • #9
                  My Mum was never shown her birth certificate until 2 years ago and has spent the last 50 years telling everyone including the Registrar for my birth certificate that she was born in Gillingham when in fact she was born in Chatham.
                  Click here to order your BMD certificates for England and Wales for only £9.25 General Register Office

                  Do you have camera? Click here to see if you can help Places of Worship

                  Jacob Sudders born in Prussia c.1775 married Alice Pidgeon in 1800 in Gorelston. Do you know where Jacob was born?

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                  • #10
                    I have a marriage cert where the groom's name is mispelt though he signed it correctly. No one spotted this at the time - and clearly didn't bother to alter it if they noticed later.

                    Rare is the cert (or census entry) where all the information is correct.
                    ~ with love from Little Nell~
                    Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Little Nell View Post
                      I have a marriage cert where the groom's name is mispelt though he signed it correctly. No one spotted this at the time - and clearly didn't bother to alter it if they noticed later.

                      Rare is the cert (or census entry) where all the information is correct.
                      Which reminds me that I have a copy of an early register entry where the bride's surname is very clearly signed as ASHPOOL, as is the father's name as witness (which agrees with the censuses) but the vicar (and consequently the GRO) has the name entered as ASHPOLE.

                      Christine
                      Researching: BENNETT (Leics/Birmingham-ish) - incl. Leonard BENNETT in Detroit & Florida ; WARR/WOR, STRATFORD & GARDNER/GARNAR (Oxon); CHRISTMAS, RUSSELL, PAFOOT/PAFFORD (Hants); BIGWOOD, HAYLER/HAILOR (Sussex); LANCASTER (Beds, Berks, Wilts) - plus - COCKS (Spitalfields, Liverpool, Plymouth); RUSE/ROWSE, TREMEER, WADLIN(G)/WADLETON (Devonport, E Cornwall); GOULD (S Devon); CHAPMAN, HALL/HOLE, HORN (N Devon); BARRON, SCANTLEBURY (Mevagissey)...

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                      • #12
                        Some old boy once said to me

                        "Whenever Man picks up a pen, error seizes its opportunity".

                        Although earlier than this, one of my ancestors, Hugh Holden, was Church Warden and Clerk for 8 years. He dutifully made a record for the Bishop each year, and signed the Register to say that he had done so.

                        In 8 years, he spells his OWN name five different ways!

                        OC

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                        • #13
                          Good for him! Too much accuracy looks calculating!
                          ~ with love from Little Nell~
                          Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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                          • #14
                            I have my grandmother's original marriage cert and her father's name is down as John Arthur and he was definitely a James Arthur
                            CAROLE : "A CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK"

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                            • #15
                              I spent many fruitless hours looking for a death and remarriage for one of husband's gt something fathers, whose wife changed name between censuses. Found her on next census with original name, so can only assume an error was made in the middle census, but it was a completely different name and not as far as I could find out a second name, so goodness knows what they were doing!

                              Not to mention the numerous Fredericks I have found who are called Frank!
                              ~ with love from Little Nell~
                              Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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                              • #16
                                It was fortunate that I already knew, when I came to search the deaths index, that my grandmother had acquired Roma as a first name - in front of Alice!

                                Christine
                                Researching: BENNETT (Leics/Birmingham-ish) - incl. Leonard BENNETT in Detroit & Florida ; WARR/WOR, STRATFORD & GARDNER/GARNAR (Oxon); CHRISTMAS, RUSSELL, PAFOOT/PAFFORD (Hants); BIGWOOD, HAYLER/HAILOR (Sussex); LANCASTER (Beds, Berks, Wilts) - plus - COCKS (Spitalfields, Liverpool, Plymouth); RUSE/ROWSE, TREMEER, WADLIN(G)/WADLETON (Devonport, E Cornwall); GOULD (S Devon); CHAPMAN, HALL/HOLE, HORN (N Devon); BARRON, SCANTLEBURY (Mevagissey)...

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                                • #17
                                  My grandfather's death cert has the wrong year for his birth and his birthplace is mispelt. It would be a right rigmarole to alter it so I shan't bother - but I am wondering if nowadays you have to produce a birth cert or give info so the registrar can check on a database, plus use a gazetteer or something similar to standardise placenames?

                                  Oh, and just to cheer you all up - my grandmother's maiden name on a database of Kent marriages is wrong! And my sister-in-law's maiden name (marriage 1990) is also incorrectly shown in index on Ancestry.
                                  ~ with love from Little Nell~
                                  Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

                                  Comment


                                  • #18
                                    I have often paraded my shock on finding that my name didn't appear in the GRO marriage index - until I found out (from my husband's entry) that the transcriber couldn't have been able to read my father's flamboyant script and my name is mis-spelt.

                                    However, I was recently in touch with the local Registrar, and she remembered my wedding from 1975 and undertook to get GRO to correct their copy! Now that is service!

                                    Christine
                                    Researching: BENNETT (Leics/Birmingham-ish) - incl. Leonard BENNETT in Detroit & Florida ; WARR/WOR, STRATFORD & GARDNER/GARNAR (Oxon); CHRISTMAS, RUSSELL, PAFOOT/PAFFORD (Hants); BIGWOOD, HAYLER/HAILOR (Sussex); LANCASTER (Beds, Berks, Wilts) - plus - COCKS (Spitalfields, Liverpool, Plymouth); RUSE/ROWSE, TREMEER, WADLIN(G)/WADLETON (Devonport, E Cornwall); GOULD (S Devon); CHAPMAN, HALL/HOLE, HORN (N Devon); BARRON, SCANTLEBURY (Mevagissey)...

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