Simon, I have a similar thing on my grandparents' wedding certificate. The father of the groom, Thomas Sheridan, is also Thomas Sheridan. In fact he was Henry Richard Sheridan ( or Richard, Or Henry - but that's another story!) I think you have to remember that children often didn't know their parents' forenames - they didn't have the bits of paper we do, people didn't go round calling people by their forenames as we do, and many of them couldn't read. If the father had died some time before, or run off and left the family ( as my great grandfather did) it is quite possible the children didn't know what his forename was - so either invented one, or said the first name that came into their head. Can you establish by census, baptism records and parents' marriage what his forename was? HTH Anne On 22 Aug 2011, at 19:55, Simon Martin wrote: > I wonder if someone could explain or help? > > A relative, Sophie Bygraves, was born 20th January 1852 to William & > Sarah Bygraves. When she marries John Willcox on April 1st 1872, the > marriage certificate has Sophias' father as John Bygraves. I'm > somewhat confussed. > Simon > A Londoner in Liverpool