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JBee
06-03-15, 09:07
http://lostcousins.com/newsletters2/mar15news.htm
kiterunner
06-03-15, 10:10
I winced at "Peter's Tips" in this edition - he didn't need to order a birth certificate to find the names of someone's parents because the birth index showed mother's maiden name, so he searched for likely marriages for the parents, eliminated those who would have been too old or where the surnames were the wrong way round and was left with just one possible couple, so they had to be the parents. There are so many ways that this could be wrong! The most obvious one being that even if he has the right marriage, the wife would normally still be using the husband's surname to register a child's birth even if they had separated or divorced, or he had died, and she had a child by some other man but was not married to him. Another likely one is that the mother could have married twice, so her surname on the marriage to the father would not be her maiden name. There are lots more possibilities, such as marriage abroad, never married but pretended to be, etc.

So I would not recommend following his advice on this subject!!
Merry
06-03-15, 11:56
No. I've not read what he said yet, but he could have made his suggestion better by firstly, pointing out the types of problem you have mentioned, and secondly by suggesting cross referencing the potential parents by looking for wills and/or death/birth entries which could help determine whether the marriage found was the right one. Also electoral rolls and no doubt 1000 other ways to help confirm, but to just go ahead and say "there's one left so that must be the right marriage" without any qualification seems crazy!
Olde Crone
06-03-15, 16:51
Yes, I still remember my shock when I received a BC for Fred Bloggs, son of Mr and Mrs Bloggs, mmn Smith.

The cert was indexed Fred Bloggs, mmn Smith, exactly as you would expect.

The shock was that there was just a line through the father's name! Mrs Bloggs, mmn Smith, had given birth to Fred Bloggs, but Mr Bloggs wasn't the father.

OC
Merry
06-03-15, 17:44
Slightly off topic.... :o

I have a cert where Mrs Bloggs named her husband, Mr Bloggs, as the father of her child, but he'd been dead about 15 years at the time!
Olde Crone
06-03-15, 20:16
LOL! I've seen that too, Merry.

I shall never forget, on another forum, I exhorted someone to "get the certificate. You MUST get the certificate". Someone else replied that there was no need to buy certs because

"they have lots of mistakes on them".

I could think of no answer to that.

OC
Phoenix
06-03-15, 20:50
Every certificate I have personal knowledge of has errors or inaccuracies. However, it's always interesting to see them. Oh, and to compare the expensively acquired copies with the originals. The gasman (1840s, deceased) who turned out to be a yeoman.
Merry
06-03-15, 21:08
The gasman (1840s, deceased) who turned out to be a yeoman.

lol :d:d:d
Olde Crone
06-03-15, 22:23
LOLOL!

All those lawyers in the family who turned out to be sawyers on closer examination......

OC
Shona
06-03-15, 22:38
Ha! Like OC, The lawyer in my tree turned out to be a sawyer.
JBee
07-03-15, 08:23
I was told yesterday that all the family trees were going online next year??????!!!!

So everyone who's spent a fortune researching their family trees have wasted their money!!!!

I can only assume they've got the wrong end of the stick but what were they refering to?
kiterunner
07-03-15, 09:41
I was told yesterday that all the family trees were going online next year??????!!!!

So everyone who's spent a fortune researching their family trees have wasted their money!!!!

I can only assume they've got the wrong end of the stick but what were they refering to?

The mind boggles.
Olde Crone
07-03-15, 09:42
No idea JBee - but my family tree certainly isn't going online.

OC