Hello all, I am Iris's niece.
All I know is that Maud (2nd), Matthew and Caroline were all the children of Matthew Golby. I also know for certain that Maud (2nd) was NOT registered at birth, as when applying for her pension, they found no records!!!
There is so much confusion surrounding this, and there is no-one who remembers anything anymore. I was told that My Grandmother and Alice had a different father and were both registered as Amos and born a decade after their other 3 siblings!!! I also found Matthew Amos/Golby and assumed him to be one and the same.
To confuse things further, after being told than Nanny and Alice had a different father, I ordered Nanny's birth and marriage certificate. The birth cert has Maude Ellen Golby (Mother) as a Licensed Hawker and no mention of a father, but on her Marriage Cert in 1939, it has father listed as Matthew Amos - Deceased!!!?
So, was Matthew Amos actually Matthew Golby, but my G.Grandmother (Maud Ellen Amos) did not understand the nature of surnames and registrations, that she used both surnames without thinking? Perhaps we will never get to the bottom of it.
I have also spoken to Maude (the 2nd)'s daughter who remembers her talking of music and singing at horse fairs as a child. I have no doubt that Matthew Golby/Amos was certainly a Romany Traveller, and that Maud (1st) possibly joined him as I understand that she worked as a maid for a well-to-do family in her younger teenage years.
Hope this may help someone help us furher.
Julia
