Q&A
Our expert genealogists answer readers’ questions
Q
When my great grandfather Alfred Joseph Butler married in Marylebone, Middlesex, in 1867, his father was listed as Joseph Butler, gunmaker.
On the 1871–1891 census returns, Alfred Joseph is 24, 34 and 44 respectively, and his place of birth is given as Whitechapel, Middlesex. There could also be an Irish link. We can’t find his birth certificate. Can you help? Marilyn Healy
A
We have six pieces of information about Alfred Joseph Butler: his forenames, surname, age, place of birth, father’s name and father’s occupation. However, at least one of these seems to be incorrect.
His forename, Alfred, is probably correct – and possibly also Joseph. Butler may not have been the surname Alfred was registered with, but was perhaps his mother’s maiden name, rather than his father’s surname. Findmypast ( findmypast. co.uk) allows you to search births using the mother’s maiden surname (MMS) without having to specify the father’s surname (unlike the General Register Office site, located at https://www.gro.gov.uk).
Using Findmypast, I found seven births of an Alfred (with MMS Butler) registered in London between 1845 and 1849. None of the births I found was registered in Whitechapel, but one (Alfred Hodgson) was in neighbouring Bethnal Green in 1846. Alfred may have reverted to using his MMS if his parents split up.
There is also the possibility that Alfred may have reduced his age for his marriage record and the 1871–1891 census returns to be nearer that of his wife, so widen the search years for his birth.
There was an illegitimate Alfred Butler registered in 1849 in
Marylebone (where your Alfred was married and was living in 1881 and 1891). This Alfred’s mother may have married subsequently, with Alfred using his stepfather’s surname in the 1851 and 1861 censuses but reverting to Butler on marrying in 1867. In a case like that, the father’s name is often invented for the marriage record. There was a William Butler who was a gunmaker in Whitechapel in 1851 and may have been related to Alfred. Findmypast has the collection ‘City Of London, Gunmakers’ Company Freedoms and Admissions, 1656–1936’, but I couldn’t find a Joseph Butler there (nor William).
Regarding Ireland, there is an Irish Whitechapel in the suburbs of Dublin. Civil registration of births did not begin in Ireland until 1864, and there are very few records surviving of the 1851 census and almost nothing of the 1861 census.
I tried searching for Alfred’s baptism in the parish records on the websites Irish Genealogy ( www.irishgenealogy.ie) and Roots Ireland ( rootsireland.ie), but with no success.
Alan Stewart
‘In a case like that, the father’s name is often invented’