In a message dated 02/08/2007 19:42:41 GMT Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: John passed away 29/04/1893, the only error being his age which I accept is fairly normal on a death certificate. His Wife Elizabeth died 22/01/1898, I have the burial entry which confirms this date,address and that she was the wife of John Hunter block mastmaker. However when I sent for the death certificate the address was right,Flag Lane, the date of death was right but the husband was wrong it had William Hunter instead of John She had been a widow for about five years. The person making the declaration may never have known her husband, and if they had they could well have forgotten his first name after that time. They may not have realised that they would be asked for his name and so when they were they made up a likely one. When giving courses in family history I always tell my students "When faced with a statement in an official document, always ask yourselves 'who said so - and who were they trying to impress?'" In this case it was an informant who may have known the deceased much better than they ever knew her husband, if they had known him at all, and they were trying to impress the registrar by letting it appear that they knew what they were talking about - don't we all do that sort of thing occasionally? (or perhaps more than occasionally!). Also do realise that someone may have had a "Sunday name" of William or John, but they were probably known to their friends by some other name. That would probably be some derivative of their "proper name", such as Billy or Johnny but it could also have been a quite unconnected nickname, given to them for some long-forgotten reason, dating back to their own childhood. That could have taken over from their "real" name to such an extent that only their immediate family knew what their real name was. I can think of an example from the last 20 years of someone who was keen to keep knowledge of his name from everyone except his wife and children, and who was always known by his "nickname". I also know of someone who was at the same school as I was, though a few years older than I. He was once spotted at night, leaning on a lampost, reading by its light a copy of a certain children's comic, when he should have been much too old to be interested in it. Ever after that he was known by the name of the comic. He became a High Court Judge (he must now be retired or about to become so) and I always thought that if ever I had to appear before him I wouldn't address him as "Your Honour" but by his nickname. Worth a couple of years on my sentence, but good for a laugh! Geoff Nicholson