Hatched, matched, dispatched

One of the reasons I chose the genealogy course offered by the 
Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies is that it is a distance learning course and can be done entirely at your own pace, and with my work commitments that is ideal.  It means I can keep the work ticking over during the Parliamentary term but really get ahead with the assignments during the recesses.

The course is modular, and there are a number of assignments with each one.  Some of them are entirely theoretical but what I really enjoy are the ones which relate directly to my own family history.  Other assignments are a sort of hybrid, where theoretical work is illustrated with examples from your own family research.

The current module is on General Registration; the system of recording births, marriages and deaths  which has operated in England and Wales since 1837.  Theoretically at least, you should be able to take a birth certificate from someone born in 2005, and create a family tree going back to the late 18th century just using the GRO.    ( because a birth certificate from 1837 would show parents who might have been born in the previous century)

In reality, it would be nigh on impossible unless you used census, parish and other records.  Our ancestors did inconvenient things like have common names and move house.  They frequently got things wrong like how old they were, and what their father's name was. Above all they lied - about their ages, their occupations and in one case,  recorded that he was single when his first wife was still very much alive!  That particular transgression cost him 8 months hard labour for bigamy in 1885. More about Thomas Tandy another time.....

The marriage certificate of my Great Great Grandparents Henry and Margaret Leadbeater in Bradford January 1873.  Her name was Margaret Ann White Cummings but the vicar recorded it is incorrectly as White and not Cummings.  Her father was James and not Joseph but died when she was very young.  She couldn't write, so left her mark on the certificate. Just shows that even certificates can't always be taken at face value.....