How reliable are certificates?

[dickiesam]

Not sure this belongs here... Please move it if necessary.

From the current Lost Cousins newsletter, by Peter Calver:

How reliable are certificates?
Do you believe everything you read on a birth, marriage, or death certificate? I certainly don't, because experience has shown that many of them contain errors. In some cases the errors arise because the information has been copied incorrectly - remember that the register entries sent to the GRO have usually been copied by the registrar or vicar (in the case of church marriages), and aren't the same pieces of paper that your relatives signed. But even if you get a certificate from the local register office, it might still be wrong.

For example, I obtained a copy of the marriage entry for my ancestor Mary Ann Burns from the local register office - which showed that her father's name was James Brown. For years I pondered this, until eventually I decided to check what the church copy of the register said - and discovered that in this register her father's name was shown as James Burns. Both certificates had been signed by my great-great grandparents, who you might expect to have noticed the discrepancy, but perhaps some of the information was filled in later? Or were they so overwhelmed by the occasion that they signed without reading the entry carefully?

Personally I suspect that they were more focused on the fact that they were both claiming to be 'of full age' even though neither had reached 21. I wonder whether they married behind their parents' backs? Neither of the witnesses were family members, and my great grandmother was born just four and a half months after the wedding, so it's not surprising they didn't want to wait until they reached the age of consent.

Marriage certificates are the ones that are most often incorrect - usually because the age of one or more of the participants has 'adjusted' to suit. Indeed, I would estimate that over half of all marriage certificates I've seen are wrong in some respect - if not the ages, then the father's name or occupation. It would take someone with great courage and fortitude to own up to being illegitimate on their wedding day, so it's hardly surprising that many brides and grooms gave misleading information. Strangely we often ignore the most reliable information on marriage certificates - the names of the witnesses!

Death certificates are the second most likely to contain errors, even though the information on them is minimal (in the case of English & Welsh certificates). No doubt in some cases the mistakes were made as a result of grief, but more often they must be the result of ignorance - particularly when the person who died is the last of their generation.

Dickiesam

[Blue70]

I think it's best to cross reference certificates with other certificates and records. My Great Grandfather Patrick Joseph Holland's birth certificate has his mother's name as Jane Brogan. His baptism has his mother called Jane Griffin. It's not until you get the birth certificates or baptisms of his siblings that you find out that her actual name was Jane Grogan! Anyone who fails to look at the siblings will end up looking for a Jane Brogan in Ireland where the mother was born.

Blue

[MaryA]

I suspect we might get quite a discussion on this. I think most of us have come across many instances mentioned above, especially the completion of a father's name on a certificate when other records make us practically sure that there wasn't a legitimate one.

Also how many times has somebody been sure that the death entry couldn't have been their ancestor because the age was wrong - it certainly wasn't the deceased who gave the information, so are we sure somebody else gave accurate information.

I hope this reaches some of the beginners thought as it might be a bit of an eyeopener for some who take certificates as gospel.

[Blue70]

I'm very wary of the accuracy of age at death on death certificates. Even for more recent events I find they can be out by a year or two. My Grandad Holland was 50 not 49 when he died. I have his birth certificate and baptism record to prove it. You would expect these details to be more accurate when they are recorded. It's difficult trying to convince relations that a certificate is wrong when it commands a certain authority in people's minds.

Blue

[yappie]

Hi Folks
In my experience it is not only the official records that can be wrong and I have found a number of errors but our Ancestors were not the most truthful. My Grandfather's youngest sister had an illegitimate daughter. The birth certificate shows no father but when she married she used her grandfathers name (deceased) and occupation as her father. This instance didn't present a problem as I already had my great great grand father's details and great aunt's birth certificate before I found the birth of her daughter.

Although very fustrating I will add that once the errors are found it is very satisfying to know our tenacity has paid off.

Regards
Yappie

[Hilary]

I think we also need to remember that back a 100 years ago and more people were genuinely unsure of things like dates of birth ages etc. We're continually being asked DOB and I suppose tend to think it was always like that.

Then universal FREE education didn't start in England & Wales till 1891 so many people were illiterate and couldn't say, "no that's wrong"

People also did lie! to be respectable, to not admit their age, or to increase it! My Granny always said she was in her "th year" so when she was 88 she'd say she was in her 89th year!


Hilary
Ed Officer

[Blue70]

I have a marriage certificate for living relatives where the groom's step father's name, different from the groom's, has been put down for convenience or laziness probably because he attended the wedding.

Blue

[dickiesam]

Another note for beginners...

Beware of altered dates, especially years, on old, maybe original, handed-down-over-the-years certificates, especially birth certs. And beware of scans and photocopies of such certs. I have come across a couple of birth certs where the year has been altered perhaps to 'encourage' a marriage match.

In one the 3 in 1883 had been changed to 1888 thereby losing 5 years for the lady in question. My g.father got a young lady pregnant when he was 17. The girl's father was a St Helens collier G.father did the reverse and added 5 years to his age by altering the year before he married the girl.

Dickiesam

[northmeols]

man o man has this problem stumped my Johnson line....church christening record gives husband of mother as father birth cert cannt be found...marriage cert gives a completely different man as father same man as father in church marriage records don't know which to believe