There were charlatans on the gold fields who duped people into thinking that they were preachers, 'married' them, took their money and departed. The marriages were never registered and were not legal but the parties concerned did not know and thought they were legally married. Some miners could not read or write. This poses many difficulties. Some were semi-literate.
Names are often misspelt.
Even in the recording of events for the government registers there are spelling errors. Imagine the predicament of an Irish or Scottish person registering a baby's birth and the person writing down the information was a none too literate Englishman with his own broad regional accent. We are indeed fortunate that any information is available. The greater majority of working people were illiterate and so there are very few diaries or written records in existence describing their lives in the 1840s to 1860s. Most of the diaries that have survived were written by people who could afford an education and naturally, their diaries tend to reflect their own more privileged lifestyle and view of society.