Resources for Godknows genealogists

Godknows Births, Marriages and Deaths, England and Wales, Civil Registration

I stumbled across this unusual surname while transcribing Godkin entries from the GRO indexes.

I don't know the origin of the surname "Godknows". It's tempting to imagine a scene at the register office when the first Godknows birth was registered, something like this (no offense intended to any living Godknows):

Clerk:	Father's name?
Informant:	God knows!
Clerk:	How do you spell that?
Informant:	(patiently) G-O-D-K-N-O-W-S

But this is pure speculation.

Anyway, the surname appears to have become established during the 20th century. The earliest record I noticed was in 1955.

• GODKNOWS Births, Marriages and Deaths registered in England and Wales, 1890-1983. I don't claim this to be complete - I could have missed a few.
• You wouldn't have found any Godknows entries in FreeBMD before April 2008, when the FreeBMD project accepted my transcription into their database. Thanks, FreeBMD.
• There are a few more Godknows entries after 1984. Indexes of births, marriages and deaths registered in England and Wales from 1984 onwards can be found elsewhere on the web. I use ancestry.