Birth Certificates - Can you really believe what you find in these records?
I wonder if others have come across the situation where I suspect a mother may have tried to disguise the birth of her daughter's illegitimate child... well I'd like your opinion on this story:
After months of investigation and ordering wrongs birth certs etc I finally received the real birth cert of my g grandfather John G Martin. But on his certificate, his mother, Mary, is listed as someone I had previously thought was his grandmother, and the birth cert does not list the name of a father, even though I believe that Mary was still married to her husband James at the time of John G's birth. Mary was age 46 at the time of the birth, so it is not a biological impossibility.
What makes me curious, other than the age of Mary, is that the 1871 census records my John G as living with Alfred Chapman (head) and Mary Ann (wife, who was the daughter of Mary from a previous marriage). John G is listed as son in law which had lead me to assume that he was Mary Ann's son, illegitimately or from a previous marriage . Mary was also in the house at the time as was listed as mother in law or mother of Mary Ann, which is true from other sources.
So is it possible that Mary tried to cover up her daughter Mary Ann's illegitmate birth by listing herself as mother or can I always assume that what I read on birth certificates is the gospel truth?