Disappointment and frustration!

[Olde Crone Holden]

Just received two marriage certs (well done GRO, only ordered them midnight on Sunday!).

The first was for my 2 x GGPs, Thomas Bell and Mary Woodhead. My brother researched the Bells many years ago but I recently checked and discovered he had followed the wrong family, so the marriage cert was needed for his father's name.

Oooooh...father's name blank. End of the line I think on this one.

The other, for another set of 2 x GGPs appears correct EXCEPT they have given him the occupation of Butcher. On all censuses he is a housepainter, as was his father and all his brothers. The bride's father is a butcher...am I safe in assuming this is just an error?

OC

[KiteRunner]

I would think it partly depends on how common their names are?

[Phoenix]

I hate it when the certificate is almost certainly wrong. The register for Chulmleigh n Devon is full of the most appalling mistakes. You can see them in the register, because you are looking at the whole page. If you had a single certificate, you really would not know.

I'd accept that the cert was probably wrong, but look double hard for corroborative proof.

[Mary from Italy]

Oooooh...father's name blank. End of the line I think on this one.

You could try the baptism records before giving up hope. And if you have an idea who the father might be, check whether he made a will naming the illegitimate child(ren).
I suppose the date is too late for bastardy records? How about looking at apprenticeship records, in case the putative father paid the master?

The bride's father is a butcher...am I safe in assuming this is just an error?

Probably, but I'd want to triple-check everything again as the occupations are so different. You could always get the bride's birth cert to check her father's occupation, or check out her baptism entry.

Of course, he may have combined both occupations. One of mine was a butcher and summerhouse builder. He had two entries in the Trade Directories under his name, one for each occupation, at the same address.

[Olde Crone Holden]

Edward Whittaker married Ellen Kenyon in 1842. His father is William Whittaker, a house painter, hers is James Kenyon, a butcher. Addresses unhelpfully given as just Pendleton (Eccles, Lancs).

In 1841 Edward is with Ellen's family and he is a house painter. Some of his siblings are still living at home in 1841 and an unmarried sister later turns up staying with Edward.

I have the baptisms of Edward and his sibs which all very helpfully give an address (Bank Topp, Rochdale) and the info that William is a housepainter.

I suppose I now need to look for any Edward Whittaker on subsequent census,a butcher, married to Ellen!

Poop, I thought I had this lot pinned down nicely!

OC

[Vicky the Viking]

Either a genuine error on the part of the registrar, or a little white lie to make him appear a bit more respectable? (Although I think housepainter would have been considered quite respectable then?)

My gt grandparents' marriage certificate gives both fathers occupations as Butcher. On the first census where he was old enough to work, the bride's father was a gamekeeper, but for all censuses afterwards he was a coal miner, and this occupation also appears on his death cert. He was only 50 when he died, so I don't doubt this is correct.

The groom's father worked as a coal miner all his life.

Gt grandparents were married in India in 1894, when he was a sgt in the army.

He married again, in 1938 when he was 73, and this time he gave his father's occupation as gamekeeper.

I think this is a typical example of trying to hide his lowly origins. From what I have been told about him, I think he was a first-class snob.

[Olde Crone Holden]

The problem with Thomas Bell...he always says he was born in Carlisle. There is a Thomas Bell exactly fitting his description in 1841 who appears to be the son of the household (no relationships given, of course).

This is where my bro went wrong and I can see why, Thomas' children were named after his "siblings" on the 1841.

However, I followed that Thomas Bell through the subsequent censuses and he is still in Carlisle. Mine was firmly ensconced in a pub in Lancashire, so unless he was leading a double life and appearing on every census twice, then it cannot be him.

Bell is frequently mistranscribed as Ball, Bill, Boll and Bull (!) which doesn't help.

However I'm just thinking a publican should have left a will. Unlikely to tell me much about his origins though.

OC

[Mary from Italy]

However I'm just thinking a publican should have left a will.

You'd think so, but not all mine did.

[Jewels]

I though my 3xgt Grandfather would have left a will - being a solicitor, theres no way he wouldn't of I thought.
His Probate says not.

Jewels

[Olde Crone Holden]

Jewels

Always makes me wonder if they DID leave a will but someone found it and didn't like it......

OC

[Meridian Line]

OC,

Do you have Thomas Bell in the 51 census? I can't seem to find him.

Also what is his wife Mary's mother's name? Elizabeth Ann could be named after both grandmothers....clutching at straws I know!

[Olde Crone Holden]

Hi Louise

Sorry, not deliberately ignoring you, I have visitors.

1851 he is here: Ho107/2330/887/p21. Love the place of birth!

Mary died between 51-61 and he is "married" to Eliza on the 61 although I have not traced a marriage yet. None of the children were registered.

Mary's mother's name was Elizabeth! Mary had five sisters and they all died in childbirth it would seem.

OC