I looked up Irish census records for a Samuel McKnight in 1911 as its the closest records I could get to 1917 for families and I can find no record of a Samuel McKnight in the the Killyleagh/Crossgar/Downpatrick/Ballynahinch or that general region. I don't know who this Margaret is either so I am at a loss. Can anyone help?
The normal interpretation of the civil registration entries would be
(a) If she was a McKnight, then the father was not surnamed McKnight, or
(b) If the father was Samuel McKnight, then she was not surnamed McKnight.
The registrar started off making the entry on the assumption that the mother, Margaret McKnight, was married. But then he realized/learned that Margaret was unmarried, he cancelled the entry, and started a new one, with no father named - as was the legal requirement.
At least that would be the "normal" interpretation of this sequence. An unusual interpretation, option (c), would be that Margaret was assuming a bogus alias. And the only reality might be that the father was named Samuel.
