Lied about her father?

[SarahCarroll]

Hi. I'm looking for a little inspiration here please. I thought I had this branch of my tree all figured out and tied up with a neat little bow but now I'm confused again. I have a Thomas Edbrooke, my 4xggf born 1793 in Minehead, living on Lower Moor farm in Minehead, never marries but lives with and has 5 children with Ann James born Ann Cullum. Ann Cullum married a Thomas James in Anglesey in 1820 and had one daughter called Agnes 1823 in Minehead then 3 years later she's living with and having children with Mr Edbrooke, James bn 1826, Charlotte bn 1828, Robert bn 1832 and twins Thomas and Elizabeth bn 1836. So Charlotte my 3xggm also never marries but has 3 children in Minehead Emma bn 1852, Annie bn 1856 and Alfred bn 1862, no idea who their fathers were. Now enter stage left John Edwards my 2xggf, marries the first of Charlottes daughters Emma Edbrooke James in Minehead in 1874. On the marriage record there is no mention of a father and her sister Annie Edbrooke James is a witness. They have one son Thomas bn 1874 Minehead before she dies 1875 Minehead. Then Thomas Edwards moves to Cardiff, Wales and Marries Annie Edbrooke there in 1876, obviously Emmas sister and she's stepped into the breach to help her widowed brother in law and baby nephew. Done and dusted so I thought, however I've just received John Edwards and Annie Edbrooke marriage certificate, he widower she spinster but to get to the confusing bit she puts her father down, William Edbrooke, labourer, deceased. Who is this?! I thought I had it all figured out! Is she lying? Sorry for the long and probably confusing post 

[LizzieL]

It's quite probable she is either lying about a father to cover up the fact she is illegitimate or she may have been told the name of a spurious father by her mother and has in all good faith given tat name to the vicar who performed the marriage. I have a rellie who invented a father with his stepfather's forename and occupation and his mother's birth surname (which was also his own surname of course). 

[SarahCarroll]

It does seem likely she is lying. I suppose the first marriage between John and Emma they felt no need to lie as it was in her home town and being a prominent family the details of her parentage would probably have been well known but the second marriage between John and Annie being in a different city she didn't want to appear illegitimate

[guest189040]

I would keep options open and map out the Edbrooke line from Thomas and his siblings just to see if he had a Brother or Nephew called William who could be the culprit.

If you cannot find a suitable William then assuming a white lie would be reasonable.

My own family lie was my Uncle getting married using his Brother’s forenames.

[PrawnCocktail]

They do invent some tangled webs, sometimes!

My ggmother, Mary Barker, gave her father as "John Holland" on marriage, in 1844.

When her children were baptised, the Parish Register asked for not only parents names, but grandparents as well.

No baptisms have been found for her oldest two, but on the third, she gives her parents as Charles and Jane Birtwisle of Sandiway, Cheshire. On my ggrandfather's baptism, in 1854, they were John & Ann Barker, as they were on his younger brother.

So, three sets of possible parents, and ... no baptism for her. Under any of these names.

Excuse me while I stick straws in my hair!

I think the two couples are respectively her maternal grandparents, and the parents of her mother's husband (who is probably not her father). John Holland? Who knows!

DNA results have produced nothing (as yet!).

[SarahCarroll]

That is very tangled! You really need to be a detective sometimes don't you. And just to add I love the surname Birtwisle, it's great! I wish some of the parish registers I've come across would ask for grandparents too, would make life much easier in many cases, sometimes I struggle to even get the mothers name.