"The mark X..." on marriage cert

[Arranroots]

I've just received the cert for Mary's first marriage. On this one, she also placed an "X".

Now I know that James' dad was "Captain in the army". No idea which army, so that gives me something else to look for, should I get bored...

Mary and James were both living in Islington at the time of the marriage, so no clues as to the name of her birthtown in Cornwall, which I can't read on the 1851 census entry... 

Karen

Do you want to post the reference - I don't mind having a look to see if I can decipher it?

Arranroots 

[1000xlch]

Hi KMcD

Re the Captain in the army.  Do you know where he was living at the time as he may have joined up locally or his original regiment where he was born.  Being a Captain ie an officer should be easier to trace as there are a lot of records at Kew than can help.

Cheers

John Rowley

[dennford]

      Here is one explanation of why you may see an x (or thumbprint) next to a signature.
      During one of my Asian trips where one has to fill in forms for everything from buying a boat ticket to marrying I was asked to put an x on the form, I naturally signed the form but was instructed by the official that he needed my x.
      It is still quiet the norm for many places in the world to use an x or thumbprint  - many westerners would be shocked at the amount of illiteracy in our world.
                                                  Denn

[Karen McDonald]

Hi Arranroots

I asked about this in the "Cornwall" part a while back. If it works, this should be the link...

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,104592.msg448877.html#msg448877

Suggestions were Trevone, Terras and Trewen. I myself think it's Terron or Tarron. There's a town a little higher on the sheet which definitely starts with a "T", and the letter is exactly the same as the one at the beginning of the town I'm trying to decipher. However, I can't find a Terron or Tarron anywhere...

John:
All I know about Charles McGregor is what's on his son's marriage cert. As his son, James, was born in Scotland, I am assuming that Charles was, too. James and Mary married in "The Scotch Church, Islington", according to the cert. I have no idea whatsoever about the military situation in 1846 - maybe Charles was with the British army. I haven't started researching him yet. I expect there were zillions of Charles McGregors around at that time...!

Regards from Germany,
Karen
 

[Karen McDonald]

Forgot to post the census reference.
Errm...am I allowed to? I'm not sure how the copyright thingy functions... 

The entry is from the 1851 census, very kindly given to me by the wonderful Valda. At the bottom it says: H.O. 107 1631. The number in the middle at the top of the page looks like a 12, and in the top right corner there is the number 232. Parish of Eastry, District of Sandwich, Village of Eastry (Kent).

Just in case: Copyright information, property of the Public Record Office, London. Not to be reproduced without permission.

(What exactly can we/can't we show here?!)

Another thing:
Valda found a possible birth entry for Mary Mitchell in 1815 in St. Agnes, nr. Truro.
I was toodling around in the "Cornwall" part and noticed that "Gerrans" and "Veryan" are towns which come under the Truro registry district. If you put on a Cornish accent and squint whilst looking at the census, they are both possibilities...!   

Karen

[Ninatoo]

This is interesting because I have been assuming that the illegitimate son of a possible ancestor could not be hers, since when she married she could not write her name, whereas she had signed the birth certtificate.  I was thinking that MY ancestor must have been illiterate. 

But perhaps she chose not to sign because she knew she was telling lies about her parentage and perhaps she felt it was safer to just put an x mark on her marriage certificate.  Or she may not have been able to spell the made up maiden name!  I never thought of that before and it seems to make a lot of sense to me!

[loo]

Periodically, phonetics are brought back as a way to deal with the fact that kids can't read.
When I was in school (in Canada, umpteen decades ago) I once had a teacher who had survived teaching in the late 1940s when apparently this was in fashion.  I remember that he thought it was an unmitigated disaster.  Every time a student guessed at a word and obviously had no real clue how to read, this teacher would proclaim, solemnly, "1946-47 guesser!"  He seemed to consider the whole thing hopeless.  I think if they want to fix the problem, they will have to be a little more creative.