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William Matthew Mitchell 1878 seems to have been born William Matthews Saville, probably the illegitimate son of Ellen Saville, daughter of Matthew Saville and Elizabeth Rickard. After Matthew Saville's death, Elizabeth remarried to Henry Mitchell.

In 1881 William is listed as Matthew Saville, living with his mother, his aunt, and his grandmother and step-grandfather Henry Mitchell.
In 1891 he's Matthew Perry following his mother Ellen's marriage to James Perry.
By 1898 he had reverted to his birth name William, and adopted his grandparents' surname Mitchell.

See my posts on 6 August at 1.59 and 2.06.

Of course, you need a trail of certificates to prove all that conclusively.

Just a quick one - thank you all who spent copious amounts of time on this. I have reached the end I think....pending the purchasing of certificates!!

Phil

You don’t actually need to pay for a cert for the birth of the subject of this thread, which would confirm his mother’s name.

Digital images can be downloaded from the GRO site for £3.00 for the period in question

I thought there had been a period where these were obtainable at a cheaper price. Is it births/deaths only? Marriages remain the same at £12.50?

https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/indexes_search.asp

As explained on the GRO site - only births and deaths are searchable on the GRO site, but marriage certs can also be ordered through the site if you have the reg details (volume, page, etc) from elsewhere, such as FreeBMD, Ancestry, or elswhere.

Availability of digital images is as shown on the GRO site - dependent on date.

Hi All - have received the digital birth record of William - it matches that of his Navy record. Registered by a Master in the Workhouse.

Thanks for letting us know, Phillip.