I solved a massive family mystery with the 1939 Register. My GGrandparents married in 1893 (according to the 1911 census) - I have seen their entries on the 1901, 1911 and for the baptisms of their children and their entries on the GRO Deaths However, no record of their marriage has ever surfaced and I have been looking for over 20 years starting with the old GRO registers on fiche! Then comes along the 1939 a few years ago on FMP where to my astonishment they are both listed as 'single' and she has registered in her maiden name. What hours of anguish this must have caused them both to finally confess. Anyway, an official has annotated the entry to say that the ID card was issued under the married name - so not all officials were officious The question is - why with 4 children did this couple not marry. Again - no previous marriages have come to light - so mystery only part solved Fiona
You might suspect that once they had a child born they wanted to save face Or they simply never got around to it, its far from uncommon to find people finally marrying years after, perhaps due to inheritance and providing for the woman when the man eventually passed away Unmarried she would have no automatic right to inherit Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) On 09-May-18 9:28 AM, Fiona Hall via LANCSGEN wrote: > I solved a massive family mystery with the 1939 Register. > > My GGrandparents married in 1893 (according to the 1911 census) - I have > seen their entries on the 1901, 1911 and for the baptisms of their > children and their entries on the GRO Deaths > > However, no record of their marriage has ever surfaced and I have been > looking for over 20 years starting with the old GRO registers on fiche! > > Then comes along the 1939 a few years ago on FMP where to my > astonishment they are both listed as 'single' and she has registered in > her maiden name. What hours of anguish this must have caused them both > to finally confess. Anyway, an official has annotated the entry to say > that the ID card was issued under the married name - so not all > officials were officious > > The question is - why with 4 children did this couple not marry. Again - > no previous marriages have come to light - so mystery only part solved > > Fiona