Missing Marriages and Maiden Names on Birth Certificates

[serreth]

Hi there,
I haven't been around for a while because I've been busy hunting for people with no luck.

What could be a reason for a missing marriage record? Other than the obvious, they weren't married.

I'm searching for my other half's grandparents, Caroline Alma May (or May Caroline Alma) HAZEL(L) and Wallace Henry DAVIDSON.

I think their first child was born 1924 in Wiltshire so I guessed the marriage would have been before that. My partner's father was born in 1939 and I have his mother as May Caroline Alma HAZEL.. yet all the other birth certificates mother's names are "Forename MARRIED SURNAME formerly MAIDEN NAME".
Is this just one of those things or could she genuinely still have been HAZEL? I do know that her death was registered as Caroline Alma May DAVIDSON.

Can anyone shed any light?

Thanks

Beth

[snoopysue]

I'm not sure if it would have would've still been the case in the 1930's but basically the info on the birth certificate is what the informant has given the registrar. Is it the mother who's down as informant?

The other thing is that not everyone did get married. I have one couple who'd had three children and waited seven years before they tied the knot. And on the birth certificates preceeding the marriage she appears as though married.

It may be worth looking for a marriage later than you expect. Of course they may have never married.

[serreth]

Here's the scanned copy of birth certificate and reading that it would appear they didn't marry.. Doh!



Informants are W H DAVIDSON and M C A HAZEL.

Yikes. I'm a dope. Sorry.

[snoopysue]

For me I'd say the infomants clinch it. I'm pretty sure that if they're not married the father had to agree that the child was his. There is another point - the date they registered the birth is quite a while after the birth (can't remember the time limit), but as Wallace was a sailor they may have had to wait until he was around to go and register the birth!

Of course they may have got married and she kept her name - but it wouldn't have been common!

[Jimmy]

What were the names of the children.

[serreth]

Thank you for confirming what I was already thinking.

I've emailed the Records Office who hold a death for a Wallace Henry DAVIDSON, and they confirmed the address at time of death with what I already know. Currently waiting for that certificate.

So if they never married, the chances are that one of her children registered her death in 1992 and simply did not know their parents weren't married hence being registered a DAVIDSON. Hmmm... the mind boggles. My family weren't half as puzzling.
My mother-in-law did say her father-in-laws family was complicated.

[serreth]

What were the names of the children.

I only know there was a Wallace, Pamela, Roy, Donald and John. There could have been more. But the other half isn't sure.

[Jimmy]

Hi,
Yes I did find them but I can't see a marriage that fits.

[snoopysue]

She could have taken his name (it wasn't illegal to do so), or she could have changed her name by deedpoll.
I would have thourght she must have been using Davidson, otherwise the kids would have noticed letters with the wrong surname on it at some point.
Maybe one of them was already married - it was more difficult to get a divorce back then.

[snoopysue]

Have you seen this birth?

Name: Pamela J Davidson
Mother's Maiden Surname: Hazel
Date of Registration: Jul Aug Sep 1928
Registration district: Chepstow
Registration County: Wales
Volume Number: 11a
Page Number: 10

[serreth]

She could have taken his name (it wasn't illegal to do so), or she could have changed her name by deedpoll.
I would have thourght she must have been using Davidson, otherwise the kids would have noticed letters with the wrong surname on it at some point.
Maybe one of them was already married - it was more difficult to get a divorce back then.

Is there anyway to find out names changed by deedpoll?

[serreth]

Have you seen this birth?

Name: Pamela J Davidson
Mother's Maiden Surname: Hazel
Date of Registration: Jul Aug Sep 1928
Registration district: Chepstow
Registration County: Wales
Volume Number: 11a
Page Number: 10

Yep, I found her. The oldest is Wallace H D DAVIDSON and he was registered in Wilton, Wilthshire (I think) in 1924.

[snoopysue]

Found this on the net:

Contrary to popular belief, there is no central register of name changes in the United Kingdom. Deed Polls are not registered anywhere unless they are "enrolled" i.e. lodged for safe keeping, in the Close Rolls of the Chancery (from 1851 to 1902) and from 1903, in the Enrolment Books of the Supreme Court of Judicature, which is located within the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand, London. After about five years, the court's enrolled Deed Poll records are transferred to the National Archives, which is situated in Kew, Surrey. The National Archives contain Deed Poll records going back to 1851.

http://www.ukdps.co.uk/IsADeedPollRegis ... where.html

So the answer is maybe!

[serreth]

That wouldn't be difficult at all would it? Oh well.. I guess waiting on the Death Certificate is necessary to find an approximate year of birth...

Even that has to be taken with a pinch of salt because from what I've been told by the Register Office who holds the record no (known to me) family member was the informant.

[snoopysue]

The informant on newer deaths is usually a doctor - at least on my family. Presumably because most people are in contact with the health service at the time they die, although saying that I have a few people who died in hospital where it is a family member who's the informant. I suppose it depends on a whether they do a post mortem (would be a doctor or coroner), but if there was no need for a pm then it could be anyone as informant.
On others it's someone who was present at the death, but is neither medical personel or family (or maybe family where I haven't found the connection).