The Mystery of Charles Goff
Charles Goff first appears in the Nottinghamshire records on 22 April 1919, when he married Ada Talbot at the Southwell Register Office. On his marriage certificate he described himself as a 48-year-old bachelor, employed as a farm labourer and residing in North Muskham. He named his father as John Goff (deceased).
Charles does not appear on the North Muskham Electoral Registers until 1922. As electoral registers were not compiled during the First World War, it can only be concluded that he arrived in North Muskham sometime during the war years, although it is presently impossible to establish a more precise date.
Using the information recorded on the marriage certificate, Charles’s stated age of 48 suggests a birth year of approximately 1871, although no place of birth was recorded.
The next significant official record is the 1939 Register, where Charles gave his date of birth as 18 March 1865. Unfortunately, no birthplace was recorded. The original register actually records his birth as 18 M 65, with the month later transcribed as “March”. Whether this transcription is correct cannot be confirmed.
The reliability of the dates recorded in the 1939 Register is further called into question by the entry for his wife, Ada. The register records her birth as 27 January 1871, whereas her birth certificate clearly shows she was born on 27 January 1891. This obvious error demonstrates that the dates supplied for the register cannot always be accepted as definitive.
The final official document providing useful evidence is Charles’s death certificate. He died on 5 March 1953 at Carlton-on-Trent, aged 81 years, indicating a birth year of approximately 1872.
Taken together, the available documentary evidence suggested three possible birth years for Charles:
- 1865 (1939 Register)
- 1871 (Marriage Certificate)
- 1872 (Death Certificate)
None of these documents recorded his place of birth.
Searching for Charles Goff
After researching every plausible Charles Goff born between 1865 and 1872, and extending the search by several years either side, one candidate stood out:
Charles Goff, registered in the June Quarter of 1864 in the Ampthill Registration District, Volume 3b, Page 377.
A copy of his birth certificate revealed that he had been born on 18 March 1864 at Cranfield, Bedfordshire, the illegitimate son of Mary Ann Goff.
Immediately, one important detail stood out. Although the year differed by one year from the 1939 Register, the day and month matched exactly. Such small discrepancies in age and birth year are extremely common in nineteenth-century records and, by themselves, are not unusual.
The major obstacle was that this Charles Goff was illegitimate, whereas the Charles who married Ada Talbot had named his father as John Goff.
Following the Bedfordshire Charles
Despite this difficulty, research continued into the life of the Cranfield Charles.
He married Emma Waters on 15 April 1883 at Lidlington, Bedfordshire, using the name Charles Fells Goff. Together they had four known children:
- Lucy (1883)
- Mary (1887)
- Charles (1890)
- Alfred Waters Goff (1897)
The breakthrough came in a newspaper report published in the Luton Times and Advertiser on 2 May 1902. The article reported that Charles Goff, of Westwood, Nottinghamshire, had been charged under the Married Women’s Act with deserting his wife, Emma, at Aspley Guise. Their daughter Lucy gave evidence against him, and the magistrates granted Emma a separation order together with maintenance payments.
This report was significant for two reasons.
Firstly, it placed Charles in Nottinghamshire by 1902, providing a logical explanation for how he could later appear in North Muskham.
Secondly, it strengthened the possibility that the Charles who married Ada Talbot was the same man who had abandoned his first family in Bedfordshire.
Another intriguing discovery concerned Charles’s maternal family. His mother, Mary Ann Goff, was the daughter of John Goff and Mary Ann Cooke. This raises the strong possibility that when Charles married Ada in 1919 he named his grandfather, John Goff, as his father rather than admit to being illegitimate. The description of himself as a bachelor simply indicated that he was legally free to marry, rather than implying he had never previously married.
A Working Theory
For many years my working theory was that Charles Goff, born on 18 March 1864, married Emma Waters, deserted his wife and children sometime before 1902, and through employment—possibly on the railways—eventually settled in Nottinghamshire.
Between 1902 and 1919, he appears to have made his way to North Muskham, where he married Ada Talbot and established a second family.
Although the evidence was compelling, it remained only a working theory. Without direct proof, it could never be stated with complete certainty.
DNA Provides the Answer
The missing proof finally came through DNA testing.
After submitting my DNA results to Ancestry, I received three significant matches with descendants of the Bedfordshire Goff family.
One match descends from Peter Goff (born 1925), grandson of Charles Goff and Emma Waters.
A second match descends from Ann Goff (1818) of Ketton, Rutland, who was Charles’s great-aunt.
A third match connects to Sarah Goff (1811), also of Ketton, another close member of the same Goff family.
These DNA matches are all independently verifiable descendants of the Cranfield Goff family. The only possible route by which they connect to me is through my own great-grandfather, Charles Goff.
Taken together with the documentary evidence, the DNA evidence establishes beyond reasonable doubt that Charles Goff, born 18 March 1864 at Cranfield, Bedfordshire, and Charles Goff of North Muskham, who died on 5 March 1953 at Carlton-on-Trent, were one and the same individual.
Identifying Charles’s Father
The DNA evidence also suggested another possibility.
Charles married Emma Waters using the name Charles Fells Goff, and my DNA results include matches with descendants of the Fells family of Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire.
This raised the obvious question: did Charles actually know who his father was?
The answer proved to be yes.
A newspaper report in the Bedfordshire Times and Independent, dated 30 August 1864, records proceedings before the Ampthill Petty Sessions on 26 August 1864:
Charles Fells, of Marston, labourer, was charged by Mary Ann Goff, of Cranfield, single woman, with being the father of her illegitimate child. He was ordered to pay sixpence per week maintenance together with costs of twenty-five shillings and sixpence.
This contemporary court report confirms that Charles Fells was legally recognised as the father of Charles Goff.
The Final Piece of Evidence
The last remaining piece of evidence surfaced with the release of the 1921 Census.
On this census, Charles himself stated that he had been born in Cranfield, Bedfordshire.
This declaration, made by Charles in his own lifetime, finally removed the last remaining uncertainty.
After nearly a decade of research, the mystery of Charles Goff’s origins had finally been solved. His birthplace, his parents and his wider Goff ancestry could now be established with confidence.
One question, however, still remains unanswered.
Did Charles Goff legally divorce Emma Waters before marrying Ada Talbot in 1919—or was he, in fact, a bigamist?
Wayne and Sandra's Family History 