Can anyone help me identify the birth of my g.grandfather, Elijah NICHOLLS. He was married on the 30th September 1893 to Elizabeth Sharples ORD at the Register Office in Newcastle upon Tyne. The marriage certificate gives Elijah's age as 21, leading to a birth around 1871/1872. Also, from this certificate I can identify that he is a Coal Miner and is the son of Joseph NICHOLLS who had died before the wedding. >From the 1901 census, Elijah gives his age as 30, confirming the birth around 1871, and his place of birth as "Staffordshire N K". However, I can find no entry for an Elijah Nicholls (inc. NICHOL, NICHOLL, NICHOLLES, NICHOLS, NICKALLS, NICKALS, NICKELLS, NICKELS, NICKOLLS, NICKOLS, NICOL, NICOLL, NICOLLS) in the civil register indices between 1870-1874. The only solution I can come up with is that Elijah was possible illegitimate and was therefore registered in his mothers name. After the marriage of his mother to Joseph Nicholls, he then adopted that surname. Would he have had to formally change his name? Where would I find the records of this? My next step would appear to be a review of the 1891 and 1881 census returns in an attempt to locate Joseph Nicholls. From there I should be able to identify the Mother's first name(s). If I can then locate a death certificate [firstname NICHOLLS], which I assume will show her maiden name I could then search for an Elijah maidenname. Can anybody throw any light on this problem? Or, alternatively, identify any alternative approach? Many thanks, Rob Appleby Researching: N.E. ENGLAND: APPLEBY, FLINT, HOOD, MARSHALL, NICHOLLS, PHAROAH, RUTHERFORD