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ps i did notice that rennard/reynard was quite a popular name in baildon too so perhaps it was quite common locally...

hi heywood, libby9 and whiteout7, thanks very much for your interest, and for your help. i'll try to do a bit of untangling...

libby9, you're right about the 1861 census not showing Rennard Hollis - i got mixed up and should have said 1871. and i hadn't thought to wonder where he actually was in 1861.

the 1823 marriage you found of william mawson and anne reynard is pretty compelling - so that's presumably where the name comes in.

whiteout7, in the marriage record i found for lydia holles and william (aka rennard?) mawson, his surname was transcribed as manson.

after the entry for rennard hollis and his family in the 1881 census, i found nothing more until reference to a grave for a rennard hollis, d. 13 Jun 1903, Shipley, buried Windhill Cemetery. i'm going to concentrate on finding his whereabouts in 1891 and 1901.

given the fact that rennard died in 1903, i'm interested in his wife mary hollis nee townsley re-marrying mr hawksworth before that date.... bears further investigation i think.

i started this investigation with a man called rennard mawson, who was sometimes called william - i can see now it's more accurate to say that he was actually william, and he appeared once (1861 census) as rennard. i still wonder why but perhaps i'll never know....?

lydia hollis is my husband's 2nd great grand aunt, according to ancestry.co.uk, so you can see i am really going off at a tangent. sometimes a family just grabs you :-)

apologies for the bitty-ness of this message - trying to cover all aspects :-)

and again, many thanks for all your time...

Hi Jool, thanks very much for the link - I will follow it and see if Gerry got anywhere...

Hi all. I've got myself into a right palaver.

I identified Rennard Mawson (b. abt. 1837, Shipley) as the husband of Lydia Hollis through the 1861 census, Shipley, Yorkshire. In the same household is a son called Rennard Hollis - I assumed he was their son, born before their marriage. There are several other, Mawson, children.

I have found no other reference anywhere to this man. Couldn't find a marriage, or his birth, or any other census entries, although Lydia is quite easy to find.

I started to follow up his children and was thrown to find that at least a couple of them give their father's name as William Mawson on marriage entries. I initially dismissed it and decided I was looking at the wrong people, but then I peeped at someone else's tree and saw that they had Lydia's husband as William and not as Rennard. So, I decided it might be worthwhile treating him as a William, just to see...

I found a marriage dated 2 Nov 1857 (right time) between Lydia Holles, daughter of John Holles, tailor (all correct) and William Mawson, which took place in Shipley (correct).

In the 1871 census, Lydia was alone at an address in Shipley, married but husband not present, and I've never been able to find him. By 1881, she's calling herself widow, although I can't find his death.

Using the name William, I've now found someone in the 1871 census that could be him, in very much the right place, a weaver, living with a widow Mary Ann Baldwin and her daughter. His age is pretty much right, born Baildon, which I think is part of Shipley. I still haven't found a death for him, and I can't find him in the 1881 census.

Could he have changed his name, or had two names? I can't dismiss the name Rennard as it was his son's name, and also a grandson's name. His children presumably knew about both names, so it can't have been a secret identity.

That's all a bit long-winded but can anyone help? Has anyone come across Rennard/William Mawson? Or a similar situation? Or am I totally barking up the wrong tree?!

Hope so 

Thanks Koromo

I've found Java, and it was already enabled so isn't solving my Origins problem... I've disabled it now, till I need it. I've read about the trojan...

Nic