Ireland to England - married on Ship????

[njh]

William Trainor and Catherine Hillen, my ancestors, either didn't marry (despite having 10 kids and all birth certificates saying that they did) - Or given that i can locate their marriage in Ireland or England then they must have married on the ship that they come over in around 1877.

Has anyone else heard of this - or was it possible to do so.   

Catherine was 20 when the first child came in Liverpool (I have this theory they came over from ireland when catherine was pregnant - and either didn't marry but decided to say that they were or married on the ship).

Any one have any ideas?

 

[carrielovesfanta]

I don't know so much about birth certs but some of my ancestors who weren't married are written as such in census returns and parish registers. She just gave his surname as hers as if they were married and all the children have his surname.

Hope this is a bit of help

Happy hunting

Caz

[corinne]

I think your most likely scenario is that they never married officially, but having immigrated while she was pregnant, decided to call themselves married as they would have realised that no-one in their new town would know they weren't.  There would have been no reason for anyone to check up on this, and with more children being born in what was obviously a stable relationship, it would have got less likely over time that anyone would question it. 

[njh]

I agree that they probably never married.   The problem is that without a marriage I can not find out who their fathers were and can not find them in Ireland without this info.............

Anyone any good ideas?