ALBERT WILLIAM MARELLI, KNOWN TO MOST AS BERT, is of Italian extraction, a fact that I found very interesting and romantic so you would assume, naturally, that I delved into Bert’s life story and those of his ancestors often. Wrong! Now Bert has gone taking with him a million unanswered questions and to add to my frustration, my husband, Brian, is just as guilty of the same negligence towards his family history as I am. Bert did not talk very much about his past, except for the story about his grandfather Martino who walked from Italy and started his life in England selling ice off the back of wagons. Why did Bert talk so little about his background I now ask myself? Was it because he was reluctant to divulge very much information or because we failed to listen or show deeper interest by asking questions? Whatever Bert’s reasons I was horrified that Brian knew so little, while I could be forgiven as I was only the daughter-in-law. I now admit, somewhat reluctantly, that it took me another two years to realise I knew even less about my own family history than Brian knew about his.

June 1998 – Bert’s papers

Brian inherited lots of paperwork and family photographs from Bert and among the piles were some very interesting documents:

• 1.An extract from the Marriage Register for Martino Marelli (Bert’s grandfather) to Amy Plummer. Witnesses present were William and Susan Plummer. It also told us that Martino lived in Lower Marsh, Lambeth at this time and is the son of Angelino Marelli and that Amy Plummer is from Tooting and the daughter of William Plummer. They were married on Christmas Day, 1891. So we not only had Martino’s marriage certificate but the name of his father, Amy’s maiden name, the name of her father, William Plummer, and presumably the name of Amy’s mother, Susan Plummer, who is a witness at the wedding. Also the marriage extract is dated 29 June 1897, six years after the marriage took place so they must have ordered this extra copy for a reason.
  
• 2.The death certificate dated 13 February 1940 for Martino Marelli, aged 88. He was living at Battersea, and present at his death was his daughter M. Davies of Battersea. The cause of death is given as heart failure, gastric haemorrhage (sic) and cancer of the colon. This gave us the married surname of one of Martino’s daughters, Davies.
• 3.The birth certificate for Lilian Lucretia Chappell, Bert’s mother, dated 10 April 1892, living in Lyme Regis, Dorset. Her parents were listed as Frederick Stone Chappell and Susan Chappell formerly Lugg. The occupation of Lilian’s father is given as a painter (journeyman). We now had two sets of great grandparents.
• 4.The birth certificate for Albert Marelli, son of Martino and Amy (father to Bert and grandfather to Brian), who was born exactly one year to the day that his parents married, Christmas Day, 1892. This certificate told me that Martino and Amy were living at Martino’s address as Lower Marsh. The certificate also gave us an occupation for Martino of master fishmonger. We had heard stories of Martino owning fish and chip shops. On the back of this copy of the birth certificate is National Insurance information dated 20 May 1912, after the Act had come into being in 1911. So this copy of the birth certificate was also ordered for a reason.
• 5.The marriage certificate for Albert Marelli dated 25 July 1912, aged 19 of Battersea, occupation motor mechanic, and Lilian Lucretia Chappell, aged 20 of the same address, no occupation. It also states that Martino is Albert’s father together with his occupation, fishmonger, and also that Frederick Stone Chappell is Lilian’s father with his occupation, carpenter. Witnesses were R. G. Spiller and Rosa Spiller. They were married in Wandsworth Register Office. Perhaps this forthcoming marriage was the reason Albert ordered a copy of his birth certificate.
• 6.The death certificate for Albert Marelli, dated 13 July 1974, aged 81. This gave his occupation as carpenter (retired) and his home address at Chertsey. Present at his death were Albert William Marelli – Bert, of East Molesey. The cause of death was given as left ventricular failure, myocardia infarct (sic).
• 7.Incredibly there is a document dated October 1906 from the Diocese of Milan, signed by Rev. Giovanni Villa, Reverend of Milan Foundlings Home (see figure 1.2). The document states that Martino Antonio Merelli (sic), parents unknown, was born on 20 January 1852 and baptised the same day. So in 1906 someone else in the family had tried to locate Martino’s birth details.
  
• 8.Of most interest is a Certificate of Naturalisation dated 17 May 1897 relating to Martino, who was then aged 44 years, married and still living in Lower Marsh but at a different address (see figure 1.3). The naturalisation certificate also listed his children: Helen aged 20, Martin aged 17, Ada aged 15, Matilda aged 12, Albert aged 3 and Amelia aged 1. Although naturalisation took place in May 1897 the marriage extract for Martino and Amy was ordered in June of the same year. Perhaps the original copy was mislaid during the application for British citizenship. I wonder if the M. Davies who was present at Martino’s death is Matilda?

We were completely fascinated by the above but also puzzled because four of the children listed on the naturalisation certificate were born prior to Martino’s marriage to Amy Plummer. There had never been any discussion within the family of Martino having been married twice. Surely someone would have known this? For a few days we assumed that either Amy had been married before and that her children took the name Marelli when she married Martino or that maybe Amy and Martino had lived together before marriage for some reason. We even discussed these possibilities with Brian’s only aunt and uncle (Vic and Bet) but they could not help. As far as the family was concerned Martino only married once and they had heard nothing to the contrary. We came to the conclusion that we had to investigate this further and decided to find a birth certificate for the oldest named child of Martino called Helen, as named on the naturalisation certificate, in the hope that this certificate would furnish us with a clue.

With all of the above we noted that Martino, Albert and Bert, three generations of Marelli men, lived into their 80s and we could now go back four generations on a couple of branches of Brian’s family tree (see figure 1.4).

Brian’s Ancestors – July 1998

The first important piece of information we found out is that Somerset House no longer held births, marriages and deaths! When did this happen? We discovered the existence of the Family Record Centre (FRC), London and set out to find Helen, one of the mysterious older children of Martino Marelli, Brian’s great grandfather, prior to his marriage to Amy Plummer in 1891. We made the decision to unravel this mystery in memory of Bert, because at that time we had no real interest in family history ourselves. To be honest we did not have a clue about family history or how to go about it but felt it would be interesting to solve this riddle.

We did not arrive at the FRC until about 11.30 a.m. on a Saturday morning mainly because we had to catch a train into London and two tubes followed by a 20-minute walk. We had our bags searched by security and were directed downstairs where there are facilities, lockers, snack machines, phones and a large seating area. Back upstairs through reception on the right we found the area housing all the registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths, plus an enquiry desk. Within this area are masses of shelves housing the large index volumes all stacked in rows with large sloping desks placed between the rows to rest the books on while researching. The place was heaving with people that day and everyone seemed to know what they were doing except for us, but the atmosphere was exhilarating. After queuing at the information desk we were directed to Births and looked at the years surrounding 1876 to 1878 when Helen, if the age is correct on the naturalisation certificate, is supposed to have been born. We found nothing registered under the name Helen Marelli. To our dismay we also discovered our first mistake, we had only looked at one volume for each year instead of four. What we failed to take in at this point is that there are four books for every year split into quarters.

Convinced we would now find Helen we started again but failed to find her although we did find a birth for a Rosa Marelli, born in 1877 in Islington, and Martin Marelli born in 1878 in Lambeth, a thrilling experience. We went for a coffee and thought about things. Is Helen the illegitimate daughter of Amy? Is she adopted? Is she perhaps Martino’s daughter from a previous relationship? Confusion fogged our minds so we decided to look for some of the other children. Sadly in our eagerness to get to the FRC we had not taken with us one vital piece of information, the naturalisation document listing the names and ages of Martino’s children, but then we only ever intended to look for Helen!

Completely unequipped we searched through births again from 1876 and located two more in the London area and one in Manchester. Perhaps the birth in Manchester is a relative of Martino’s? The children we found were Ada in 1880 and Matilda in 1882, both from Lambeth. The Macclesfield birth was for a John Fred. We had no idea if any of these finds were related to Martino but suddenly we had to find out. It occurred to us that even though we could not find Helen Marelli we had found other children so this meant that Martino had been in a relationship previously!

Energised we rushed back to customer services with our precious discoveries to ask how we order the certificates only to be told we had not taken down enough information and needed to take a pink form and fill in all the details from the registers.

Eventually, after revisiting the same volumes for the third time, we collected all the necessary information, queued and ordered all four certificates.

Our next visit was to the Marriage indexes. Well we couldn’t leave now, not without looking for Martino’s first wife, could we, if indeed he had married before his marriage to Amy? As his eldest child, Helen, was 20 in 1897 we began our search four years prior to her probable birth date from the year 1873 with every intention to continue until 1897, the extra years were to allow room for error.

With a scrap of paper and pencil ready to note each year and quarter methodically we grabbed a volume each, fighting for a space in this very popular area for family historians. I wanted everyone to disappear and leave us alone to carry out our most important research; no one else could be doing anything as vital as we were! So I was pleased that although I am reasonably petite I am quite strong and able to squeeze into little gaps, duck under arms and swing heavy index volumes onto desks with agility. I was getting quite hot and bothered thinking it was going to get rough but managed to keep my irritation in check when Brian grabbed me by the shoulder and turned me round to face him. Wordlessly he pointed to the name of his great grandfather Martino Marelli in the first quarter of 1875 and for one rare moment I too was speechless. It was staggering, our eyes filled with tears; it was as if we had just stepped back in time and said, ‘Hello, Martino’. What would Martino have made of us doing this 123 years after his marriage and 48 years after his death, we wondered in amazement? We ordered this certificate but as we were mentally drained, hungry and emotional we decided to head home and digest what we had found along with some sandwiches.

The first certificates arrived

The first batch of certificates arrived on the following Friday morning. I was to learn that certificates could take longer depending on demand. I held the unopened envelope in my hand marvelling at what secrets of the past it would reveal, relishing the moment, then sat on the floor and ripped it open.

The first birth was for Rosa, dated 27 August 1877, daughter of Martino Marelli, a carman and Ellen Marelli formerly McDonald, living in Islington (see figure 1.5). It is true, Martino had been married before and at that moment I was the only living Marelli that knew this amazing piece of information. I felt so proud of Brian and myself; we had done this amazing thing. Wow!

The second birth was for Martin, dated 29 August 1878, giving an address in Lambeth, the father Martino, occupation carman and mother Ellen Marelli, formerly Mackdonald (sic) (see figure 1.6).

The third birth was for Ada, dated 23 June 1880, giving an address of Waterloo, occupation of father, ice merchant, mother Ellen Marelli formerly Mackdonald.

The fourth birth was for Matilda, dated 10 October 1882 and giving yet another address in Lambeth, occupation of father, carman again, mother Ellen Marelli, formerly Mackdonald.

The fifth birth was for a John Fred from Macclesfield, whose father was George Joseph, occupation railway clerk, and mother Mary, formerly Worthington. This appeared to be from a different family. We would have to investigate further.

Last but by far the most exciting certificate was the marriage certificate for Martino. Dated 1 February 1875 it gave Martino’s age as 23 years, occupation carman, living in Holborn. It stated his father’s name as Martino and his occupation as carman (see figure 1.7). (How strange – on the extract of his marriage to Amy it gives the father’s name as Angelino.) Martino’s first wife was Ellen McDonald, aged 17 years, of no occupation, living in Eyre Street Hill and her father was James McDonald, occupation tailor. They were married in Saint Peter’s Italian Church as Roman Catholics. Martino was able to sign his name but Ellen could only make her mark. The witnesses were Benedette and Mary Alens both of whom signed with their mark.

First column on your birth certificate is the GRO reference

Numbered 1 to 500 the GRO reference is for a complete page in a register. Twins on the same page will have the same reference number, but if the twins were the last entry on one page and the first on the next they will have consecutive reference numbers. Another point to remember is that some families may have two births that appear as if they are twins when in fact they could be cousins or not even related.

Column 1 – date and place of birth

The date of birth is not always accurate, reasons include:

Parents were not above telling lies when registering a child outside the six week rule of registration.

Parents often became confused about the various dates of birth for their children as you will find on the Census where you sometimes find brothers’ and sisters’ ages switched in error.

The place of birth can be helpful during later registrations but in earlier ones you will find that in some instances only the name of the village is given, as with earlier Census.

When finding a full address a useful check is to see if the mother or father has registered the birth and given the same address as the place of birth for the child. It is important to remember some women went home to their mother’s to give birth, but even if a child was born in an institution there could be a clue to the location of the family if the address of the informant is listed. If there is no address other than the institution then the area itself could be a clue or an old map might show the nearest institution to where the family resided although this could be many miles from the family home.

Column 2 – forenames/given name

The forename or names are in this column. A child can be registered without a first name due to the fact that the child died before registration, or because they do not as yet have a name, or because the child was abandoned, born into poverty or going to be adopted.

Where there are no father’s details in the register you might be lucky enough to find two Christian names with the later proving to be the surname of the father.

Remember that a person might be registered with a given name, as with one of my ancestors Alice Amy Plummer, who was known as Amy throughout her life. Or perhaps they were known by a nickname bearing no resemblance to their given name.

Column 3 – sex

Mistakes have been made in recording the sex of the child when a name can be used for either sex, such as Francis and Frances, if spelt incorrectly. Or unusual names are given such as Asor Zoar, one of my ancestors, female incidentally. Another ancestor of mine Stephen had two baptism registrations – one for Stephen in FamilySearch.com and one for Stephanie in the National Burial Index. At first I thought they were twins as both were christened at the same time but further investigation at the original Church Records at the Surrey History Centre proved there was a mistake made in transcription in the National Burial Index and Stephanie was in fact Stephen. Always allow for human error!

Column 4 – father’s name

At the beginning of Civil Registration, 1837, the rules of registration were open to interpretation. They stated that a birth should be registered within 42 days but it wasn’t necessary to record the name of the fathers of bastard children. This meant that some registrars recorded the names of both parents even if not married and others only the mother if the parents were unmarried. This situation was clarified in the mid 1800s with clear instructions for registrars. It was stated that if parents were not married the father’s name should be left blank. Towards the third quarter of the 19th century the fathers of illegitimate children could be added if both parents were in agreement.

Even when the name of the father is recorded on a birth certificate it is open to question when a couple are not married. This can also cause problems when no father is named on a birth certificate and this can carry on for generations.

My five times great grandfather, after the death of his first wife, became involved in a second relationship. So far no record of a marriage has been found. He inherited two children by the surname Webber. Neither child had the name of the father on their birth certificates, but I am aware this does not mean that Frederick was not the father of her earlier children. Both of her children used the name Pudvine and when the boy married he actually named his children Pudvine, when they should have been know as Webber, and the name Pudvine continues in that family to this day.

Column 5 – mother’s name

Column 5 gives the name of the mother of the baby and will also include previous names if married. For instance, I found one birth certificate with the mother’s married surname as Garbett, late Burnett formerly Clarke as she had been previously married.

In later records it is possible to find a mother registered with the name she has adopted, such as Brown, but it will also include otherwise Walker, although this is not always the case. My great grandmother Azor Zoar is shown on the birth certificates of her children as Azor Zoar Brown, formerly Walker, although she was never married to the father of her children. Again it is important to remember that, as with the stepson of my five times great grandfather, a female could also record herself formally by her step name.

Column 6 – father’s occupation

This is the occupation of the father. Sometimes this can be blank, either because the informant did not know the occupation of the father, or the father was unemployed, i.e. not in paid employment. Sometimes the occupation may be listed as a labourer but there were many forms of labourers. My husband’s great grandfather is recorded as being a carman on one birth certificate, an ice merchant on the next, then back to carman on the next.

Column 7 – signature, description and residence of the informant

Once the entry has been checked by the informant, he or she signs Column 7 with their usual signature. If the informant can’t write they will put their mark, usually an X, and the registrar will add ‘the mark of…’. When you see that the informant cannot write it probably means they cannot read, so they are relying on the registrar to record everything correctly to the best of his ability, which can cause problems. The first wife of Martino Marelli, my husband’s great grandfather, could not write and one of her children was recorded as Ellen Morrelli and in my early days of research this caused me great trouble. It is also worth remembering that a signature is not always proof that they were literate. Many people learnt to write their names but that was as far as their education went.

Informants can be the mother, the father if married to the mother, both parents if not married to each other (this came into being in the last quarter of the 1800s), someone present at the birth (grandparents, aunt, midwife, etc), or the owner or occupier of a property or institution such as a master at a workhouse, or a person with responsibility for a child, a relative or family friend, or the master of an institution if the mother died in childbirth.

Addresses given can be misleading, especially if the mother goes to the home of a friend or relative to have her child. You could also have the address where born recorded the same as residence of informant if the mother is registering the birth and think you have the correct address for the family, but the mother might be recording her residence at the time of the birth. Also, when someone else is registering the birth the address will be that of the informant and the place of birth could be the address where the child was born and not the family address, the address given could also be many miles away from the true family residence.

Column 8 – date of registration

The date of registration is important as this will be the date recorded in the indexes and not the date of birth. My own mother was born on 28 February 1929 but her birth was not registered until 16 April 1929, so when searching for a copy of her birth certificate we found her not in the March quarter but in the June quarter of the indexes.

If the child was not registered within the given period required by the law it is possible the child was never registered, as with my husband’s maternal grandmother. Sometimes a birth is registered up to a year later or longer if there was acceptable proof of birth from relatives, doctors, etc. We must not forget a parent giving an incorrect date of birth in order to escape paying penalties for late registrations.

Column 9 – signature of registrar

The registrar’s signature is of little genealogical benefit, unless of course the registrar bears the same family name meaning there could be a family connection.

Column 10 – name given after initial registration

You might find a correction of the given name in this column if the name is changed at baptism. Usually a child would be baptised after Civil Registration, which could cause problems searching the indexes if the Christian name/s were changed and not corrected on the birth certificate.