Hi Helen I was interested in your posting as I thought my husband's family was the only family where the first wife's name was registered for children she did not have.
Archibald Robinson had two children to Elizabeth Mary Farrell after he married her. Sometime after the rest of the second child Elizabeth left Archie and we can not find any divorce between the two. Archie then took up with another lady Maude Guy and had thirteen children but when my husband's father received his birth certificate the mother registered on it was Elizabeth Mary Farrell. After checking all thirteen children's certificates all have the mother as Elizabeth Mary Farrell not Maude Guy. Yet Maude Guy did have all the children.
My husband's family were not impressed with my husband unearthing this information but he wasn't to know what his grandfather was up in the 1900s-1930s in Broken Hill. My husband wasn't to know what was going on. We also had done a lot of work on the Farrells before receiving the correct information from other family members.
I don't know if anybody really checked up on whether it was the correct name of the mother on the certificate so one buttumes that Archie registered the children with Maude none the wiser. What also was funny is when the children were baptised their mother was shown as Maude Guy.
Cheers Deb from Adelaide SA
