An ancestor having the last laugh...

[Geordie daughter]

I've been tracking down my Newton ancestors in London for many years now, and had got them back to one Charles Newton and his wife Hannah who were in Ward's Place, Islington in 1841, but appear to have started off in the parish of St. James, Clerkenwell where most of their children were born. Charles unhelpfully died before the next census so I couldn't confirm his place of birth which was, apparently, "out of county." Well, today Charles dropped his bombshell - he may not be named Charles after all! Some years back, I had ordered their eldest son, Alfred's, marriage certificate and his father's name was given as James Newton but I assumed the vicar had made an error as Alfred's middle name was James. This week I finally ordered the third son's (my direct ancestor) marriage certificate although I had the full date and place already, to see if the witnesses were related to the groom and if there was a specific address the groom was residing at (they weren't, and there wasn't). Once again, the father was named James Newton, so was the enumerator muddled, or was "Charles" James's second name, perhaps? Has anyone else had this happen to them?

[groom]

Have you got the baptisms of his children, what was he called on there? I imagine that perhaps his name was actually Charles James, but that he was known as James. Any information filled in by him would be as Charles, but any filled in by his children would be as James, as that was what they had always heard him called.

[Mabel Bagshawe]

Yes - one of my ancestors is Henry on every census, but John (William Henry) on his birth, marriage and death (only the address, occupation and informant on the latter cert confirmed they were one and the same!)

[groom]

Until her funeral I didn't know that my grandmother's name was Alice,as every one always called her Gertie or Gertrude. Her actual name was Alice Gertrude, but because her mother was also Alice she'd always been known by her second name. 

[coombs]

Some ancestors have gained middle names or lost them when rellies have registered their deaths, the amount of times they did not mention their middle name making it harder to track them down.

My 2xgreat gran was always known as Kate, but when her youngest grandchild saw her funeral card years after she died, she read that it was Mary Ann Katherine, when all she heard was Kate was always known as Kate.

[Jo.]

I've got a couple...

Hubby's granddad..

Birth cert he's Abraham James Parsons, 1911 Census, he's Henry Parsons, He marries using Henry James Parsons....  First time he actually saw his birth certificate is when he had to order a copy for his GWR Pension, just before he retired His death certificate is Henry Abraham James Parsons

His sister

Birth cert, is Emma Parsons, she was baptised Emma Alice Parsons, the 1901 and 1911 census has she's Alice Parsons!

The latter I had a lot of help from chatters in the chat room, Finding/Resolving Alice.

[Geordie daughter]

That's the fun part - I've never been able to locate a baptism for any of the children, who were born between 1825 and 1834, nor their parents' marriage. Hannah came from Newport Pagnell originally, and after Charles's/James's death, married a James Goddard (in 1851). Alfred and Charles were in their late teens around the time when their dad died so I doubt it would have been a case of confusing the stepfather's name with their father's name.

I've often dealt with friends' family trees where they've switched Christian names around or added in new ones, but this is a first for my lot!

[a-l]

I have one side who used their middle names only for generations  right up until today. I will never understand why they bothered with first names.

[coombs]

In 1856 my 3xgreat grandfather William Coombs gave Matthew George Coombs as his father, occupation, coachman. Yet that was the forename of his older brother who was never a coachman, he was a printer. The occupation was right. Their father was just George Coombs. George died when William was 3 so I think he thought "Brother is Matthew George Coombs, dad must have been the same as he was a George as well, maybe that was his middle name as well" if he died when William was just 3 in 1831. When Matthew wed he said just George Coombs, coachman.

George's wife died in 1851, but Feb, and was born out of county according to 1841 when she was in Marylebone, Middlesex, London.