Mistakes on marriage records

[iluleah]

"I am at loggerheads with a relative" WHY I would tell them to go and do their own research!

Of course there are errors on offical records, on a marriage cert the only 'real' information is the date/place the rest is given information which could be a lie, or a mistake not picked up as the people marrying didn't read/write or they just missed the error

My great grandfather married twice on his first marriage he names his grandfather ( who brought him up) as his father, on the second marriage cert he names his uncle who he was working with at the time as his father and yet his father was alive.... Another side great grandparents one lied about her age she said she was 10 yrs older than she was as she was marrying an older man the other said he was a bachelor ( he was a widower)

[mckha489]

I’ve got one from about 1900 where the forenames of the fathers were switched. 
Something like George HAMILTON and John MARSHALL. Instead of John HAMILTON and George MARSHALL

 Luckily for me it was a second marriage for the bride and a sister signed her full easily recognisable  name neatly! 

A family I am working on at the moment for a friend have all so far been literate, with excellent handwriting.   On one of those marriage records in the 1700s the vicar has heard the bride’s name as having a D in the middle. But the bride has clearly signed with a T in the middle.

[Jebber]

I have given some examples on other threads, but it would take me ages to list all those I have found doing my own, my husband's and friends trees.

I have come across numerous examples of grandfathers, uncles and brothers named as the father on the marriage certificates of illegitimate people. My mother-in-law was illegitimate, she didn't even know the name of her mother until I sent for her birth certificate when she was nearly eighty, she only had the shortened version. She was brought up in foster care. On her first marriage in 1937 the Father's name was correctly left blank, on her second marriage in 1954 her foster father was named as her father.

Then there are the two marriage certificates I have for one man who describes himself as a bachelor on both marriages, having failed to obtain a divorce from his first wife. As far as I can tell, his bigamy was never discovered.

The only certificates that I can be sure that the facts are 100% correct, are my own marriage certificate, two sons birth certificates and the death certificates of the people for whom I was the informant.

[Gan Yam]

I registered my mother in laws death and the Registrar made an error on the death certificate, cant remember what it was.  She nulled the certificate that she had used, corrected the error and printed a new certificate.  If the error hadn't been noticed and I couldn't read, it would have remained on the certificate and nobody would have been any the wiser, and this is only 5 years ago!

[Stanwix England]

My own entry for my birth on the England and Wales Birth Index is wrong. Completely wrong forename. The only reason I know its me is because of the combination of my surname and mothers maiden name, which is rare.

It's a sound-a-like of my somewhat unusual first name, so I have a feeling it was maybe communicated over a phone or shouted across a busy office. 

[mckha489]

Golly..do you have to have a passport in the wrong name?

[Stanwix England]

No because my birth certificate is right. It's just the index for some reason.

[mckha489]

No because my birth certificate is right. It's just the index for some reason.

Phew!

I know someone whose name is spelled incorrectly on her birth certificate, another way on her drivers license and neither of those is the way she actually spells it. So every time she has to do something official she has to make sure she uses the “correct” version!

[Stanwix England]

Blimey that sounds like a nightmare!