Father's Name Missing

[sigma]

I have a marriage certificate from 1862. The father's name of the bride is missing. I can think that the reason is because she was illegitimate. Are there any other reasons why the name has not been entered.

[Dodger666]

Have a read of this:-

http://www.genealogy.com/52_donna.html

[Rose Maybud]

It could be that the the bride's father had died. There were no 'rules' as to what to put in that box. There are several points of view: if the father had died, therefore there was no father and he didn't have an occupation; or, there was a father, he did have a name, and an occupation when alive. I have two sisters in my tree, marrying just a few years apart, one left the boxes blank, the other filled them in. The most helpful state the father's name and add (deceased), and include the occupation, perhaps with (retired) if that was the case [that's what my OH did on our marriage certificate].
As to illegitimacy and adoption, the “father's name” may be the adopted father, or just the father-figure. In short, no guarantee of anything, unfortunately.

[Dodger666]

Further to the above, your only chance to get an answer is to find the Christening record of the bride and see what that says. That may not be possible unless you can find her on the census (1851 to 2011) to discover where and roughly when she was born. The 1841 census only tells you if the county she was born is the county she was living in at the time of the census.