Hi Karen I have a very similar case with some of my wife's ancestors. Her grand-mother Emma BELL was born in London. In February 1901 she gave birth to a daughter before she married, but in the 1901 census which was held shortly afterwards she was recorded as married - but without the father in sight. However, on the child's birth certificate, both the informant and the father are shown as a John BELL and we know that he was not the child's father nor was it her father's name. So who was the mysterious John? We cannot find him in the 1901 census. What I do not understand is what - on a birth certificate - does "Name and surname of father" mean. It can be interpreted as meaning 'father of the child' or 'father of the woman who has given birth to the child'. You can almost hear the local Registrar saying to the informant "and who are you?" perhaps meaning 'are you the father of the child'. To that question the informant could easily say he was 'father' if he was the woman's father. Strange. John - Suffolk -----Original Message----- From: Karen Massey [mailto:karen_staines@hotmail.com] Sent: 11 August 2008 20:31 To: essex-uk@rootsweb.com Subject: [Ess] Grandfather named as father on marriage cert? My ancester Sarah Ann Bailey was born in Orsett around 1850 and i want to trace her parents. On the census i found her living with her grandfather WILLIAM BAILEY but never with her parents. I ordered 2 birth certificates that i though it could be, one was definatley wrong whilst the other gave the mother as EMMA BAILEY and Father as Unknown. William Bailey had a daughter called Emma so this is possible. I also ordered Sarah's wedding certificate and the father named on it was WILLIAM BAILEY. The grandfather WILLIAM also had a son called WILLIAM. Confused yet??!! The second william would have only been 14 when Sarah was born. I think that perhaps her mother was EMMA BAILEY and she gave her grandfathers name as her father on the wedding certificate as her bought her up. Is this a logical theory? Thanks in advance Karen _________________________________________________________________ Win New York holidays with Kellogg's & Live Search http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/107571440/direct/01/