1845 birth certificate query. *Completed with thanks*

[Doddie]

I am aware that the details contained in many BMD certificates are not always accurate and comprehensive but  would still  like to know how seriously the information that was entered on them was monitored on a legal basis. The reason I ask is that on my g.g. grandfather Robert Wilson's 1845 birth certificate  it names his parents as Robert Wilson and Mary Smitton (Robert was born in the Seaforth area of Greater Crosby). However, I can find no marriage record for a Robert Wilson to a Mary Smitton. The only marriage for a Mary Smitton I have  come across in the 1840's is to a George Hubbard. A census entry for the Wilson family does though reveal Robert's mother as Mary. I have always been under the impression that if a  child was born illegitimately - if indeed this is even relevant in  Robert's case - only the mother's name appeared on the birth certificate and that the child concerned would be given his mother's surname. Was/is it actually illegal to pose as husband and wife for the purpose of filling in a child's birth certificate. While I continue to  be  unable to confirm the relationship that existed between Robert snr. and Mary Smitton I am left with the nagging doubt that I may have taken a wrong turn in my research and that I may have stumbled on the 'wrong' Robert  for my ancestor. Any advice gratefully recieved,

Regards

Doddie

[stanmapstone]

The information on  certificates is only as good as that supplied by the people involved  The civil registration system in England and Wales is  'informant driven' that is the registrar/priest can only put what he is told. There is a penalty of perjury if the information is willfully false,

From the 1836 Act.
XLI. And be it enacted, That every Person who shall wilfully make or cause to be made, for the Purpose of being inserted in any Register of Birth, Death, or Marriage, any false Statement touching any of the Particulars herein required to be known and registered, shall be subject to the same Pains and Penalties as if he were guilty of Perjury.

Between 1837 and 1875 if the mother informed a registrar of an illegitimate child's birth and also stated the father's name, the registrar could record him as the father, otherwise the space for the father's name and occupation will be blank.

This applied until The Registration Act of 1875 which stated:
"The putative father of an illegitimate child cannot be required as father to give information respecting the birth. The name, surname and occupation of the putative father of an illegitimate child must not be entered except at the joint request of the father and mother; in which case both the father and mother must sign the entry as informants"
Stan

[Jeuel]

I think there are very few certificates in my possession that are 100% accurate.  Some have spelling mistakes, others errors, though whether they are genuine mistakes or attempts to deceive who knows?

But if someone registers an event, the registrar didn't ask for proof. 

[fifer1947]

If the father acknowledges the child as his, he is entitled to have his name on the certificate.  (I have such a case in my own family) There is no requirement for a marriage to have taken place. 

The registrar is obliged to enter the details supplied by the party/parties registering the birth.

[stanmapstone]

Between 1837 and 1875 if the mother informed a registrar of an illegitimate child's birth and also stated the father's name, the registrar could record him as the father, although he may not have actually been the father, otherwise the space for the father's name and occupation will be blank.

Stan

I forgot to add   "although he may not have actually been the father".

Stan

[sargie]

In one of my families, all three of the children, born in the 1880s, had their grandfather's name and occupation on their birth certificates and baptism entries.  I don't know why this was, possibly their father couldn't get time off work to attend the registration or baptism.  The parents were married, so it seems a bit odd.

[LizzieL]

I have several instances where mother's surname on the children's birth certificates doesn't match up with the marriage. Confused me for a while. But then realised the name on the birth cert was her maiden name, but the name she married in was her previous husband's name because she had been widowed or divorced

[IgorStrav]

My great great great grandmother had 14 children, and I have the birth certificates of some of them, on which she is shown as married to their father, with her maiden surname stated.

However, I know that she never married the father, as she was actually already married to someone else (he was not so scrupulous, and did in fact remarry bigamously).  She merely lived with her second "husband" and they behaved exactly as if they were married.

So I think the certificate you have may reflect a situation where the couple felt married and simply behaved as if they were, even if they had not actually done the deed.

[ShaunJ]

Liverpool Mercury November 7 1864


Deaths

Wilson - November 3 at Litherland aged 48, Mary, wife of Mr Robert Wilson and youngest daughter of the late Mr James Smitton, stonemason, of this town