Genealogy Forum UK

According to my now deceased mother's birth certificate she was born Betty Louise Hyde on 15/6/1911 at 450 High Street North, Manor Park, North East Ham in the Registration District of West Ham. Her Father is shown as Frederick Hyde and mother as Dorothy I G Hyde, formerly Beckett. Despite extensive searches of Marriage Registers I can find no record of them ever tying the knot. Interestingly too the birth was registered by Dorothy, that may or may not be significant. My mother did tell me that she never
knew for certain if Dorothy was her mother or Fred her father, rumour has it that she was an unwanted baby from a third party.
So my questions are could a lady rock up to the Registry in 1911and just give any old details of parentage without having to provide proof and having trawled through every year looking for a marriage between them and drawing a blank, is it safe to assume they were never married?

I do have a possible hit for Dorothy Beckett's birth and that was in 1881 in the Mitford near East Dereham in Norfolk, but as I live in Australia I ahve no way of checking it out.

Any help/feedback will be greatly appreciated.


Colin

Hi Corkyboy welcome to the site

Well this is a corker!.... can't see a marriage

I am not sure what the info is that the registration offices need or needed I have emailed one to ask them.
Does anyone else know?

Hi Corkyboy I have an answer for you from Dudley Registry office - really helpful place that is!

They said...

"Yes, an informant can just say they are married, no evidence is required. They give the information verbally and sign the entry to show it is correct. Therefore I am sure there will be instances where the information will be incorrect."

So hope that helps

Thanks for your replies NL, I think that is what must have happened in this case. It's very frustrating, all I can do for now is try and confirm Dorothy's place and date of birth and see where that leads me.
Thanks again for your interest and help.

Colin

Don't give up-it took me nearly 20 years to discover a particular marriage . I have had Tooth mistransacribed as Footh and Bate mistranscribed as Pate. Try and think of other ways to check besides indexes. Search expected church registers, look for earlier births to establish a pattern and narrow down the likely dates. Think of alternative spellings and how the name may have sounded with a funny accent etc

Would it be worth checking the electoral register for 1911 to see who was living at that address? Not sure how you would do that from overseas, I haven't used electoral registers myself but I bet someone has.

west ham his a part of newham council the link to electrol dept is below send them an email they will tell you how to go about it and if there a cost

http://www.newham.gov.uk/Services/votin ... ntouch.htm

Caarol, Gardner and Peterd
Thanks for your comments and "no" I am not going to give up. On the question of the 1911 census I paid Kew for a copy of the document of their address, 450 High Street North but at the time the census was taken (March/April?) they were not living there, but were by June according to the Birth Certificate.........!

Colin

peterd wrote:west ham his a part of newham council the link to electrol dept is below send them an email they will tell you how to go about it and if there a cost

http://www.newham.gov.uk/Services/votin ... ntouch.htm

ask for 1911 as gardener say but also ask for 1912 if its there and if you mis them in 1911 you should get them in 1912

Peterd,
I got in touch with Newham who tell me that the records are held at Stratford Library and can only be viewed there. Since I live in (sunny and hot) Australia tha's a big problem unless any kind soul reading this................?

Colin

Well the 1911 census has delivered the goods. My initial suspicions that Dorothy was never married to Frederick appear to be correct and much of the info she gave on the Birth Cert was false.

Dorothy was born Dorothy Hyde, her mother Elizabeth first married Hyde, was widowed and then later married Richard Beckett. The 1911 census info shows Elizabeth Beckett as head of household, no entry for Richard but she describes herself as married. Dorothy is living in the house but as Dorothy Hyde, a daughter, single and at this point in time, 6 months pregnant.

Richard's absence from the census count could be for all sorts of possibilities, the one I like is could he be the father of his stepdaughter, Dorothy's, child?

The address as place of birth turns out to be the abode of a Certified Midwife, the father's occupation of Harness Maker is that of her stepfather as is her claimed maiden name of Beckett.

Fascinating stuff, if only I could prove some of it.

Colin

Is this still a Brick Wall?
Or have you solved it?

Unless otherwise advised this will be moved to archived section

Solved. As far as we can ascertain she used the name of a family head she was lodging with, claiming for the purposes of the birth she was registering, that he was her spouse.

Great stuff

Thanks for letting us know this will now be archived