shocks!!

I feel I have hit on a number of shocks with researching relatives.

Firstly I was trying to research my paternal grandfathers WW1 record and did not have a clue how to go about it then.

I had my dad's tattered birth certificate and on it it had an official stamp-not from the registry office.It was a stamp that showed -Army Pay Office ,Preston Feb. 1917.So I took it along to our local history shop,the man there said he didn't know what the stamp was but had I not noticed that my grandparents were not married.Well no I had not and my dad had never said anything about that,but by looking at grandmas names it became clear-her maiden name was there and her married name ,which was not grandads or my dads name.

Next I looked into what was going on.I obtained her death certificate,at the time she was living with grandad and their children but her name remained different and the certificate stated she was the wife of the man she had married and her death was registered by a daughter who definetly was not my dads sister and whose addres was in a totally different county.

I was able to find a record of her marriage and the births of three daughters who were not my dads siblings,Between  1891 and 1901 this family had all moved from Lancashire to Yorkshire,but at some time between 1901 and 1905 grandma had moved back to Lancashire and was with grandad.

Well you think all this in the past and nothing to be bothered about at this distance in time,but worse was to come.

I decided to look them up recently on the 1911 census-shock again.

Grandad was listed as living in INSTITUTION,my goodness I thought had he gone mad or something but no.On viewing the full record the institution in question was Preston Jail!So I thought I'd see where grandma and the kids were living -guess what -she's in Preston  nick as well!

Furthermore no trace of the kids.

What on earth had they done,I'm dying to know but am having difficulty finding that info.I'm just nosey I expect.

Oh and I did locate some of grandads WW1 record-plenty field punishments listed.