Why can’t I track down my grandfather’s birth record?
Q My grandfather, Arthur Graham, married my grandmother Bessie Gladys Ratcliffe in 1933 after the birth of their four children. The couple later divorced and Arthur married Kate Elizabeth Britton in 1952, before emigrating to Canada in 1957. He died in Quebec in 1970.
According to the 1939 Register, Canadian immigration papers and freemasons’ records, Arthur was born on 1 May 1902. The immigration papers also state that he was born in Hounslow, Middlesex.
However, I cannot find a birth record for Arthur. Nor is he on the 1911 census. The only other clue comes from his first marriage certificate, which names his father as “Arthur Graham, soldier (deceased)”. The second certificate doesn’t name a father at all. Helen Wood
A It’s unlikely that the birth wasn’t registered, so some of the ‘facts’ about Arthur are wrong, or at least not as recorded in the General Register Office (GRO) birth index ( www.gro.gov.uk). One or more of his date of birth, birthplace, first name or second name are not as you’d expect.
The date of birth comes from three sources, so we can be relatively sure that Arthur at least believed that he was born on 1 May 1902. There’s no reason to question the birthplace, but it’s possible that Arthur may have been brought up in Hounslow but wasn’t born there.
I would be surprised to find that his name wasn’t Arthur at birth, although ‘Arthur’ and ‘Alfred’ are frequently confused. However, there are any number of reasons why someone might be known by more than one surname during their lifetime, mainly to do with illegitimacy and multiple marriages.
The reference to his father as a deceased soldier may have been an invention to cover up an illegitimate birth, and the total absence of a father’s name on the record of his second marriage strengthens this possibility.
I suggest you try to eliminate all of the Arthurs registered in the Brentford district (which included Hounslow) in Q2 1902. I would also look at any Arthurs aged between about six and 10 living in Hounslow in 1911. It’s worth contacting the registrar via register
office@hounslow.gov.uk – the birth may have been registered locally but not transferred to the copies held by the GRO. Dave Annal