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Interesting! ... no fathers on marriage certs

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  • Interesting! ... no fathers on marriage certs

    Thought I'd share this with you.

    I recently was looking at the parish records for St Mary, parish church of Sculcoates (Hull). I had found a GRO index for a marriage in 1839 and thought I'd save myself getting the certificate. I just needed to know who the father of someone was (not an ancestor).

    I was pleased to find the marriage quickly in this busy parish but disapointed to find no father named ..... not that unusual, you might say. HOWEVER, on looking at all the marriages on the previous and subsequent several pages I found that almost NONE of them had fathers named. :(:( It seemed this particular vicar mostly didn't bother. (I really can't beleive that 80% of the brides and grooms didn't know their fathers!!!)

    I thought you'd like to know this. If I had sent for the certificate I would have thought they were illegitimate and that was that. In this case I don't think we can say that.

    Anne

  • #2
    Anne, in the early days of civil registration some vicars didn't think they needed to fill in father's details except for minors. It's so annoying when you pay for one of those!
    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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    • #3
      Didn't know that Kite. But if you sent for one of those you wouldn't know either way would you!:(

      Anne

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      • #4
        I read somwhere that the worst bit of legislation made when setting up the civil reg system was that the C of E incumbent of the parish had to fill in the marriage details and also complete the GRO quarterly return. Apparently vicars were renowned for not liking paperwork (that's what the parish clerk was for!)

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        • #5
          i have the mothers name where the fathers should be on the marriage cert.
          i dont think the vicar wanted an empty column or the brides mother threatened him.
          i have heard she was a nasty piece.
          the meercat.

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          • #6
            The marriage for my 3 x great grandparents, Richard Watson and Charlotte Bartram, came from the GRO with no fathers named.

            Thinking it was a glitch with the registrars returns I contacted the local office who very kindly checked for me and emailed me back to let me know that the registrar simply hadn't bothered with any fathers names in that register.

            Fortunately, I was pretty sure who they were because they came from a small village in Norfolk and it didn't hamper my progress at all, but had it been a marriage for a large city it might just have bought my tree to a halt.
            Zoe in London

            Cio che Dio vuole, io voglio ~ What God wills, I will

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            • #7
              I have one where the father's name just says "Dead" and another which says "Illegitimate daughter of Mary Bloggs".

              Have also seen where someone has signed their name and afterwards written "Mother of the Bride"

              Remembering: Cuthbert Gregory 1889 - 1916, George Arnold Connelly 1886 - 1917, Thomas Lowe Davenport 1890 - 1917, Roland Davenport Farmer 1885 - 1916, William Davenport Sheffield 1879 - 1915, Cuthbert Gregory 1918 - 1944

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              • #8
                Originally posted by KiteRunner View Post
                Anne, in the early days of civil registration some vicars didn't think they needed to fill in father's details except for minors. It's so annoying when you pay for one of those!
                I hadn't realised that! How lazy! My great grandparents' marriage certificate shows no father for the bride, so I just assumed she was illegitimate.
                Researching Nickless & Evans, Shropshire & Montgomeryshire. Also Ord and Coulson, Co. Durham

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                • #9
                  My great grandmother had 2 daughter's with "no father" and I've always presumed that they were both illegitimate. They were born in Cornwall, and great granny didn't get married until 19 years after the second birth, so I believe the certificates were correct. She had been a servant so I guess rape came into it.
                  My grandmother's name was Alberta Williams Maunder and I suspect the "father's" name could have been an Albert Williams, and there were several men with that name in the area.
                  Ken
                  Ken. ;)

                  Staveley, Richardson, Maunder, Stewart.

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                  • #10
                    Zilkens

                    Erm, why do you think rape came into it, just because she was a servant!?

                    Our ancestors were just as promiscuous/chaste as we are today and enjoyed sex.

                    Illegitimacy rates have remained at a steady 10% per annum since church records began, there is nothing new under the sun in human behaviour.

                    OC

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