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Archiver > WLS-MONTGOMERYSHIRE > 2002-10 > 1034985537


From:
Subject: Re: LEWIS, Machynlleth/EVANS, Llangranog CGN
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 2002 19:58:59 EDT


In a message dated 19/10/2002 00:33:51 GMT Daylight Time,
writes:


> I have searched for the Evans/Lewis marriage without success.
> I sent for a certificate once and realised it could not be our couple
> because that John Evans used 'his mark' -
> and a bookbinder/printer ought not to be illiterate!
>

The fact that a person used his or her "mark" is not proof positive of
illiteracy. I have seen many examples of people that I know could read and
write using a mark on certificates. I have an example of a woman signing her
marriage certificate and putting a cross on a child's birth certificate two
years latter, and I have Sunday school teacher who taught others to read and
write Xing on certificates
Perhaps the best known example of this comes from a letter sent by (Sir) O.
M. Edwards to his brother (now preserved in the National Library. In it Owen
complains of his embarrassment at having to produce his birth certificate on
entering Oxford University, showing that the informant, his father, had used
a cross, despite having learned to write as a child.
The explanation given is that registrars assumed that working class Welsh
people who couldn't read English must be illiterate and they instructed them
to "put a cross here". Not being able to read the English instructions on the
form to "sign", and being obedient to people in authority - they did
precisely as instructed and put a cross, despite being perfectly able to
write their names.
So the certificate with the X from your bookbinder and printer MAY turn out
to be the one that you want

Regards

Alwyn
PS - lest anyone should say "my ggg granddad's certificate from 1840 is in
English & Welsh" I should explain that copies of certificates issued in Wales
since the 1970's are produced on bilingual forms. The actual forms used
before the 1970's were in English only

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