Hi All, If you were married in 1870, did you have to provide your birth certificate, or did you just put what you were known by. I have John Alfred CAWTE age 26 married on 1.1.1870, surely he would have had to have been born in 1844. So why could I only find a birth registration of John George CAWTE. (George was his fathers name). Could this one and the same person?? Thanks. Annette..South Wales.

Hi Annette No, there is no need to produce a birth certificate for a marriage. The fact that those who have been married sign the certificate in the presence of two witnesses, who also sign, is deemed adequate, as my parents found to their cost when they had to order a copy from Somerset House following the loss of the original in a fire. When they received the copy they discovered that an error had been made and requested a correction. Somerset House explained that as they had signed the original certificate they were certifying that it was correct: however further investigation revealed that the copy held by the church where they were married was correct, so it was just the copy sent to Somerset House that was wrong. It took another two years for Somerset House to agree to a correction being made. I still have some of the correspondence. Perhaps like my parents you have an error ? It is interesting to note that on my grandmother's birth cert she is known as Annie Mabel, but on the marriage cert she is shown as Mabel Annie: not quite the same, but the very devil to find in the GRO's Index :-) And on the same marriage certificate her father is noted as John Samuel Kinsey, whereas he was christened Samuel Kinsey, which is also how he appears on Annie's birth cert. I have been advised that the John came about because as a Butler he was known as John by the family he worked for and decided to adopt it as a part of his name. In summary, there is probably no easy answer! All you can do is follow the trail back to the best of your ability with the information you have available. Regards Paul Portland On Thu, 15 Mar 2001 19:55:16 -0000, you wrote: >Hi All, >If you were married in 1870, did you have to provide your birth certificate, or did you just put what you were known by. > >I have John Alfred CAWTE age 26 married on 1.1.1870, surely he would have had to have been born in 1844. >So why could I only find a birth registration of John George CAWTE. (George was his fathers name). >Could this one and the same person?? > >Thanks. >Annette..South Wales. > > >==== WESSEX-PLUS Mailing List ==== >Looking for a 19th century map in your area of interested? The try: >http://www.old-maps.co.uk/oldSite/index.htm or old Gloucs maps >http://www.smilodon.uklinux.net/maps/GLS/index.html > >