Incorrect fathers names on marriage certificates

[Marmalady]

Marmalady do you think it's possible Fanny Calvert's father was known to be someone else? It seems odd otherwise.

Don't think so

At her baptism her parents were named as Edward & Mary

Ohhh

Have just rechecked dates etc

Her father died a year before her marriage -- so presumably name was blank as she "didnt have a father"
She was with an uncle in a later census, not her father as I remembered earlier

[Meelystar]

Fair enough, I also have a child baptised with both parents names and a birth certificate with the father named, the fathers name was left blank on the marriage register. He then went by his mothers surname The parents were never married (mother presented as married when registering the births) but he was one of a least three children to the pair. I haven't (and likely never will) establish whether his named father was his father but i think he must be either illegitimate or angry at the treatment his mother received (the father married someone else).  He would have known about his 'father' as his sister lived with both parents in the censuses and there is evidence showing they were a close knit family. To me it's a big red flag if someone doesn't name a father when they should know who they were.

[carol8353]

I have one in 1896 ,her natural father died when she was just 2,and she was brought up by a step father. On her marriage cert she gives the name John (step dad) as her father,but of course knows that her natural dad's surname is the same as hers,also gives the correct job for him.

[andrewalston]

More than once in my lot, a child's father died and the mother remarried.

When the child eventually married (under their birth surname), they gave the stepfather's first name and occupation, and the clergyman has filled in the father's surname to match the person getting married.

[pharmaT]

Some branches of my family followed naming patterns rigidly which led to lots of people with exactly the same name (I suspect they did it to confuse me).  As far as I can tel this led people to being known by nicknames which were cited on certificates occasionally.  I suspect the children didn't know for example that Jimmy was David James.

My grt grt grandfather gave the wrong father on his birth certificate.  I know you said not referring to illegitimate children and he was illegitimate. However in his case I don't know if he knew.  The man he cited as his father was his mum's first husband (whose surname he took) who died 19months before he was born.  I wonder if he knew that he wasn't his father or had just been told he had died before his birth.  I guess I'll never know.  On the other hand his middle name, surname of his reputed father was passed on down the family as a middle name.

[Sloe Gin]

I have a GG grandfather who married three times.
On the certificates/parish register for the first two marriages his father's name is John.
The third marriage names his father as William. 

After much research into a likely looking John and his large family  - all the evidence points to William being correct.
Not sure what to make of it.

[Blue70]

I have a 1964 marriage record with the step-father's name on the record, probably because he was in attendance at the wedding.


Blue

[clairec666]

I have a relative called Josiah, but when two of his children marry he is referred to as Joseph.

Another relative has a very wrong father's name on his marriage certificate, but with a bit of digging, I realised it had been mixed up with his wife's father's name. Their occupations were the wrong way round, too.

We should bear in mind that the information recorded on the certificate is only as accurate as the person supplying it. Someone might not know their father's real first name, maybe if both parents had died some years previously, or if the father was commonly known by their middle name.

[Chilternbirder]

And to swap names around, no end of confusion. Matthew George or George Matthew.

I had problems finding my grandfather's war records until I realised that he always reversed his names. 

My gg grandfather's marriage cert in 1855 gives his father's names as the same as his own, Charles Henry Lintern. I went on a total false line finding a supposedly matching Lintern baptism in Somerset. Luckily I followed the Somerset Charles jnr forward and found that he was a totally different person. My Charles variously gives is place of birth as London and Hannover so I am at a dead end.