wrong fathers name at marriage

[Milliepede]

I know people made up fathers names for various reasons but how plausible do you think it is for someone to mistakenly put the wrong name? 

I ask because have long been looking for the fate of an ancestor and none of the possible marriages have the correct fathers name.

He may not have married of course but in this case his father died when he was quite young (about 7) so  

All comments welcome.

[BumbleB]

Just a thought - did his mother re-marry?  I have known a number of instances where the child appears to change surnames to fit the new marriage!

[Jebber]

Nothing is 100% certain on any certificate.
 
I have several examples like BumbleB, also where a brother was named, another a a long dead grandfather.

 My m-in-L was illegitimate and nothing is know about her father, she didn’t even know who her mother was until I brought her birth certificate (she only had the short version). On her first marriage the space for father is blank, on her second marriage she named her foster father.

[Pinetree]

My 2 x Gr Grandfather married twice and on both occasions named his father as Thomas when he was in fact called William. No idea why he did this, but other evidence such as Wills etc appear to prove he was in fact the son of William. I don’t know where the name Thomas came from but he was the youngest child and his parents both died when he was young so perhaps he just had the wrong information.

Pinetree

[ALAMO2008]

My 2 x Gr Grandfather married twice and on both occasions named his father as Thomas when he was in fact called William. No idea why he did this, but other evidence such as Wills etc appear to prove he was in fact the son of William. I don’t know where the name Thomas came from but he was the youngest child and his parents both died when he was young so perhaps he just had the wrong information.

Pinetree

Which Marriage Certificate are you going from ?

The Original Church Marriage Certificate
Or the Marriage Certificate Copy sent to the GRO that you applied for.

I have come across GRO copies sent to the GRO have Incorrect Names Copied from the Church Original Certificate

[Milliepede]

Yes BumbleB his mother did remarry but after my last sighting of him when he was 16 and with  mother and sisters.  He isn’t with mother later on. 

As has been said anything is possible but they sure don’t make it easy for us. 

[BumbleB]

Why would our ancestors make things easy for us? 

[coombs]

My ancestor's father died when he was 3, and when he married in 1856 he gave Matthew George Coombs as his father, and the right occupation, but Matthew G Coombs was his older brother's name and their father was always documented as George, plus I found George's baptism in 1790. I guess as his dad died when he was young, he was not 100% sure his father's name and assumed he was Matthew George Coombs the same as his brother. Although George born 1790 was the son of a Matthew Coombs.

[Talacharn]

I have an illegitimate relative of the 1920s, but registered with the father’s name, which took ages to find. Then she used the maternal surname. When she married, her maternal grandfather’s name was used even though he had died, but it matched the name she was offering. In not using her birth name, she could not offer her father, who disappeared soon after birth. Nothing accidental, all intentional.