* Opinions Please

[david63]

I would appreciate any opinions regarding one of ny ancesters. The problem that I have is that in 1852 on his marriage certificate his occupation was 'Bricklayer' but by 1859 on his daughter's Birth Certificate his occupation was 'Registrar of Births, Deaths & Marriages'

There could be several reasons for this - those that I have come up with so far are:

a) I have two different people - but I am 99.9% sure that I have the correct Birth Certificate and I am fairy sure that the Marriage Certificate is correct as there are several points that tie in with other information that I have.

b) The occupation is wrong on the Marriage certificate.

c) He had a very quick education after he was married - it appears that his father-in-law was in business and may well have paid for his education.

d) He was already educated at the time of his marriage but was working as a Bricklayer for some reason.

Any other thoughts would be welcome.

On a slightly different point - on the marriage certificate both ages have been recorded as 'of full age' Is this common as this is the first time that I have encountered this?

ID:313

[Guest]

It does seem a rather startling change of occupation.  The only way I could think of to see if it was correct that he was a registrar was to see if you could find out if there was a registrar of that name at that time in the area.

I am afraid that an awful lot of pre 1900 certificates list 'of full age' or simply 'full' in the age column which can be infuriating.  If a marriage party was under 21 then the term 'minor' is often used.

[Jane]

Did your certificate come from the GRO or from the orginal registrars records. If it is a GRO one it might be worth trying the local registrar for a copy from the original as you know the church they should have no problems looking up, another option to try and access the church register for a copy. Just in case when the index was sent to the GRO the information from one entry got written on the other.

[GreySquirrel]

re Sue's suggestion: Kelly's Directories of that era usually give the name of the district registrar. For instance, in the 1855 PO directory of Kent, the registrar of BDs for my home town Whitstable is named and his address given, even though the registration district is centred on nearby Blean.

[david63]

I do not have a problem with the Registrar of BDM as there is plenty of other evidence to back this up. The puzzle is the 'Bricklayer' occupation. I think I tend to go along with Jane and it be a transcription error as it seems that it could well have been his father's occupation.

Thanks for your suggetions anyway.

[Jane]

Another thought, perhaps at the time of his marriage we was help his father as he was 'between' jobs.

[david63]

That had occured to me