GRO vs Church Records

[Dazville]

Hi
Well I have stumbled across a discrepancy between a marriage certificate that I purchased in 2007 compared to a scanned marriage entry from the church records.

The certificate states he was a Bachelor however the church entry states Widower.

What do you guys make of that.

Both entries are recorded as entry number 250

Regards

Daz

[Marmalady]

Mistakes happen

The Church certificate is the original
This is copied and sent to local Register Office
This is copied and sent to GRO

So there are two chances that a mistake can be made in copying the info
Regrettable, but clerks are only human!

[Dazville]

Hi
This is true, just my luck that its now took me 8 years to see the mistake they made.
Now the search continues to solve the big mystery I have.

Regards

Daz

[Mean_genie]

You can probably lay the blame squarely on the clergyman (or at a pinch his parish clerk if he got them to copy his marriage entries each quarter). The copies were sent to the local registrar who collated all the returns for their district and forwarded them to the GRO, but they were not copied again. The GRO clerks copied information from these copies, called the quarterly returns, which they used to compile the indexes. There was plenty of scope for errors and omissions in this process too, but the scanned copies of marriage entries that you get from the GRO are in the handwriting of the officiating clergyman, or whoever made the copies on his behalf).

I was once stuck for several years on a particular line because the vicar had put the wrong forename for the groom on the copy that went to the GRO. I now have three copies of the same marriage entry; correct ones from the parish register and the register office, and the incorrect one from the GRO. It makes a nice case study. 

[Dazville]

Hi
It has been so annoying but I just have to take it on the chin as they say. I thought I was doing the correct thing with sending for the certificate, I never thought there would be a discrepancy, my naivety accepted the certificate.
I have viewed the original record now which gives me another avenue although I am still stuck with my ancestor.
Totally stuck with this one, 10 years on still no concrete evidence.

Regards

Daz

[LizzieW]

I was once stuck for several years on a particular line because the vicar had put the wrong forename for the groom on the copy that went to the GRO.

Similarly, I couldn't find my gran's baptism, yet all her siblings were baptised.  I noticed that the one before her and the one after her were baptised at the same church, so I checked the records on Ancestry for that church, using my gran's date of birth and found that her father's name had been written in the box where her name should have gone.  So she was baptised as I thought but the church records are wrong.

[dawnsh]

I've been married since 1985 and have my original marriage cert but needed to send off a copy for official purposes.

Not wanting to send the original and have that get lost somewhere, I bought a copy from the GRO and and note my father's name is incorrect.

Both fathers have written their names in full on the original but the GRO entry has been abbreviated which is how the error has occured.

The original cert and the GRO copy are both written in the vicar's handwriting.

I'll find out one day what the deposited parish register looks like.

[stanmapstone]

When you get married in church there are three books. Two marriage registers, one for the Church Records, and one subsequently sent, when full, to the Register Office, these are signed by the couple and the witnesses, the third book is the marriage certificate, filled in by the vicar as a certified copy, and given to the couple, they should all have the same details. In addition to these books are the forms filled in for the quarterly certified returns. So there are four documents where errors could occur.

The Registration Supplies Unit at the GRO provide the necessary registers etc. These include marriage registers, in duplicate, forms for the quarterly certified copies, and books of standard marriage certificates for issuing to the public.

Stan

[LizzieW]

When I registered my parents deaths - at different times, but same registry office - the registrar typed the details into her computer, and then printed copies off for me.  So I guess what she typed is exactly what GRO would get.  I'm not bothering to order copies of the certs from GRO as I already have about half a dozen of each which I had to send to various banks etc.  Everyone then sent the copy back to me!