Cando and Sue,
Thank you again for your replies. I didn’t know that there was so much information given on Australian marriage certificates so ordering one sounds like a good idea. I hope Harry was truthful when it was filled in.
My mother was born in England. Harry Maskens was born in London in 1894, the same year that his father died. Harry’s mother (my great-grandmother) married my great-grandfather in 1903. My grandmother was born a few years later. The family rumour is that my great-grandmother suspected that Harry had a family in Australia but returned to England without them. My mother asked me if I could find evidence that he had lived in Australia. My mother knew that Harry had also married in England and had two daughters but thought that he married when he returned from Australia. She didn’t know the daughters names and, although the daughters are not much older than she is, one of them has her name. It looks like Harry married three times so the information about his marriage to Lilian Chubb in 1936 looks correct. My mother met Harry at least on one occasion with family in London just after WWII finished. I am trying to determine whether the Harry Edward de Gratte Maskens who married Laura Summers in Queensland in 1921 is our Harry Maskens from London. Harry’s name is recorded many different ways on English records. All of the information about his life in Australia is new to us.
oze