Don't even know where to start with this one! Basically, my great-grandfather was born as Herbert Edwin Pease b.27/11/1898, son of Edwin Pease and Ellen Webber. I can't find any proof that they were ever married but Ellen pretended to be sometimes over the years, including on Bert's birth certificate. She and Edwin also had a son Gerald Ernest Pease b.12/6/1897. Both children are living in 1901 with Ellen's parents in Sudbury, Suffolk under these names, whilst Ellen is working in London as a servant. Their father, Edwin, goes through a hard time in and out of lunatic asylums, and he eventually died in one in Epsom.
At some point, Ellen begins to use the surname Pearse instead for herself and her sons. I'm thinking perhaps to distance themselves from the 'lunatic' Edwin.
I have now found Herbert Pearse on a schools admissions list in 1904 in Greenwich London, where Ellen was living with her sister in 1911, but there is also a John Pearse listed with the same birth date as Gerald Ernest!
I just can't figure out why they would change Gerald to John? And more frustratingly, I can't find any of the two/three children on the 1911 census, and can't find any more firm sources for Gerald or a John. Bert later moved to Sunderland, as did his mother Ellen, and my Grandmother (Bert's daughter in law) vaguely remembers him mentioning a brother, but that's all.
Sorry for the essay! If anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear them as I'm a bit stumped. I've attached a photo of Bert, just to put a face to a name
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