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« on: Thursday 17 October 24 15:29 BST (UK) »
I thought I would post this as it might help someone looking for illegitimate relatives, known to be illegitimate or not known.
Decided to trace one of my great-grandmother's cousins, who I had entered in my tree but then "neglected". Hannah Potten was born ca Feb 1860 in Burwash, Sussex, and according to the census of 1871, the daughter of John Potten and Hannah (Russell). They were married 27 Dec 1861 in Burwash. John was my ancestor's brother.
In 1861 Hannah, as a baby, is with her mother (not yet married) and her Russell grandparents, Samuel and Caroline. Listed as Russell.
In 1871 she is with her parents, and is listed as Potten. Her only sibling, also John, died as a baby.
At first I could not find a marriage, nor a death, that worked using Potten and Potter (often transcribed that way, incorrectly) but did find a good match on the 1891-1911 censuses for a Hannah of the right age, b. Burwash, m. to William James Relf. On the 1911 it stated she'd had 12 children, 12 living.
I looked up the children on gov.uk and found 10 registered as mmn Potten, one as Potter, and the eldest I could not find at all.
Then I went to DNA matches, and found a match to a couple of descendants of one of their daughters, so I felt confident I had found Hannah Potten and her husband, but could not find a marriage. I looked under Hannah Russell, didn't see a Relf match, but went back to it later, and saw the husband match was William James R. Ellis. William James Relf? Yes, found their marriage in the Burwash records.
So William James Relf began life as William James Relf Ellis, the illegitimate son of Richard Relf and Mary Ann Ellis (his "housekeeper" in the 1861, but they did marry later).
The first child of Hannah and William's, Ellen, I could not find registered in gov.uk but she is found on FreeBMD as Ellen Relf Ellis, Mar Q 1881.
If you have stuck with me so far, we have four surnames - Ellis, Relf, Russell, and Potten. It took quite a bit of digging around to find the family, which actually ended up in London.
Sadly, I found Hannah in the Hackney Branch Institution, Brentwood, Essex, in 1921. After that, I cannot pinpoint her death with any certainly. Her husband is likely the William J. Relf of the right age, who died in Lewisham district in 1933.
Just posting this to show that it is possible that two illegitimate individuals can marry and with the use of two-four surnames it can throw up some brick walls.