My Nan has a Dad that actually cant be possible...

[Alexander.]

Nellie Surgey Lawe is still single in 1911, and doesn't appear to get married until 1927 or 1930?

I don't think she married at all:
Deaths Dec qtr 1981 - LAWE, Nellie Surgey, 06 Oc 1887, Lincoln, 7/1711

The 1930 marriage you mention is probably the Nellie born in 1911.

[jan57]

Class: RG12; Piece: 2598; Folio: 49; Page: 6; GSU


Ellen Surgey  Lawe   aged  3     living with  Sarah Lawe her mother    a widow   and siblings ,   There's  a  Matthew Surgey lodging with them
 Matthew  Surgey   dies in 1922      probate  shows  ,  leaving  assets to his widow  Sarah Ann Surgey 

[MargP]

A Matthew Surgey married a Sarah Ann West
Oct Qtr 1876 Leicester
7a
401

Margp

[TylerGib]

This is going off topic without sounding harsh.

Ok, the problem does not lie with Nellie Surgey Lawe. I have all the info, facts, where and whens with this lady. The issue is with my Nan, Sarah M Lawe, her daughter born in East Retford 1925.

The James Lawe for her Dad on her marriage cert in 1945 CANNOT be her Dad. Nellie never married and I imagine the chance of two Lawes meeting are very slim.

So is there a way I could find out her actual Dad or would that be lost forever?

By the way her middle name is Marghrita or however you spell it, for the lady whom asked:-)

[aghadowey]

Sometimes the way to answer a query is not straight-forward.

It's not impossible for a person to marry someone with the same surname (has happened numerous times in family trees I've researched) and that was why other avenues were explored.

You asked how Sarah could have put James Lawe down as her father on her marriage certificate and I gave you 2 simple reasons- the most likely is she was illegitimate. If so, you need to search for other sources that might list her father- baptismal record, etc. but if she simply made up the name then you might get no further in finding the truth.

[youngtug]

Just a long chance but what was Sarah,s grandfathers name.

[MargP]

Sometimes the way to answer a query is not straight-forward.

It's not impossible for a person to marry someone with the same surname (has happened numerous times in family trees I've researched) and that was why other avenues were explored.

You asked how Sarah could have put James Lawe down as her father on her marriage certificate and I gave you 2 simple reasons- the most likely is she was illegitimate. If so, you need to search for other sources that might list her father- baptismal record, etc. but if she simply made up the name then you might get no further in finding the truth.

I also have 1st cousins with the same name marrying in my tree, it is always best to get birth certificate's first, then you have a basis to work from, as there may be 2 Nellie Surgey Lawe's it is possiable for either of them to be her mother

[larkspur]

Was her father " James Lawe" on the marriage cert. deceased?
I can find no death of a J L that fits, or a marriage. The only Lawe/ Lawe marriage was between a Francis and a Frances...
I would go with her being illigitimate. My great grandmother put her grandfather down as her father on her marriage.To avoid embarrassment, I am assuming!
You need to send for her 1925 birth certificate.....

[carol8353]

It's not impossible for a person to marry someone with the same surname (has happened numerous times in family trees I've researched) and that was why other avenues were explored.

My grandma was Rogers before she married in 1923 and Rogers after she married too 
She married a distant cousin!

The only way you will be able to tell who her father was purported to be is to view her 1925 birth cert.