Hi Peter, Seems that your question has a possible answer from Richard. But if I may add something here. 1. The registrar takes down what they are told, therefore this does present a few scenarios, which can be dependant on what questions are asked and what information is proffered. One you touched upon yourself, a possible widow, but not divulged at the time of registration. 2. One of my families registered the births of their children with maiden name on the birth registrations. We could not find a matching marriage entry for the time frame, BUT there was one in a time frame which made the children almost adults, the eldest was 20 in fact. On getting this marriage certificate it was indeed our couple. Obviously they did not marry, had children, registered the births, so why marry later? There could be many reasons on thinking about it. Marriage for inheritance purposes, hubby was in the army so, timing might have been convenient, necessity due to a late baptism or a marriage of one of the children or that they were no longer bearing children so could marry without as much stigma attached ......we will never know probably. But there it was. Cheers Pam from Adelaide Australia > Hi Everybody > Notwithstanding that people do make mistakes I am just wondering how > accurate mother's should be when they state what their Maiden name is? > > After, I think it was, 1910 the Birth entries on FreeBMD show the Mother's > Maiden name but I just can't seem to find anyone with the Maiden name of > HAYES marrying a Mr Trus(s)ler except for one lady in Lancashire and, > although this is exactly where I want the marriage to take place, the > timing > is way, way out! > > Eg, I have found 4 children with birth registration dates of 1939, 1942 > (Twins) and 1946 in Lancaster. In each case the Maiden name of the mother > is > shown as Hayes. But, the only Hayes / Trus(s)ler marriage I can find is in > 1914.