Mary/Maria Hedican/Hedigan born 1847, County Clare, Ireland. On her marriage certificate in Australia her father is listed as MICHAEL and mother as MARGARET McNAMARA.
On the birth certificate of my grandfather it says MARIA HARPER formerly REICHEU (we do not understand this name or reference).
On the marriage certificate of my grandfathers it has her name listed as MARIA HADIGAN.
On Mary/Maria's death certificate the name of her father was MARTIN HEDIGAN and her mother MARY HEDIGAN maiden name Mary McNAMARA.
All very confusing. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
C
I'd be inclined to take information provided by the person herself as a starting point. Generally speaking, she was more likely to have known the names of her parents than a third party was. Information on the marriage certificate would have been provided by Mary. Information on the death certificate was provided by someone else and may not have been correct; they may have mis-remembered or never known.
Who was the informant of your grandfather's birth?
Are they original certificates or transcriptions? Mary's father's name may have been incorrectly transcribed on a record.
Another explanation is that names may have been misheard by the person writing down the information. Were the people providing information able to read and write?
Another possibility is that Martin was known as Michael or Mick by people in Australia.
