ALICE JAMES & ? FOSTER Entry to USA abt 1912

[saworth]

Oh, okay, thank you Shelley.  I hadn't thought of the US Ancestry having the information.  Will look into it. Thanks, Sally

[saworth]

Hi, I have today received Alice James's birth certificate - with no mention of the name Aubrey!  The parents' names are correct and her birth date is given as 19th Jan 1873.  I see earlier on in this conversation it was mentioned as 19 Jan 1876 - so at least the day and month ties in - if not the year!  I have tried to eliminate any other Alice Aubrey women on births, but on freebmd only first names appeared to be given.  It does seem strange to me that all her siblings had middle names, but not her.  Her father was actually a blacksmith, who came from Wales to London to work on the railways.  She had him down as an engineer on the marriage certificate - again, would I take that as being the same job more or less, in her eyes anyway? 

If I could just clear up the Aubrey part of this, I could presume this must be 'my' Alice, but am wary to get too excited in case I have totally the wrong person.  Can anyone help me to find out if this is one and the same person?  I would have thought she would have had to have added the name Aubrey officially somewhere, if this is the same person.   Many thanks, Sally

p.s.  I have got the USA portion of Ancestry, but can Erato please tell me where she found them arriving on the SS Friesland?  Thanks

[Erato]

They are in the Philadelphia passenger lisr - search for Arthur Forster.

[saworth]

Many thanks Erato, I shall have a look around for the passenger lists.  With your apparent years of knowledge, if you were me, would you take this to be the same person that I am looking for, or do you think the issue with the middle name would make you think it might not be?   Thanks, Sally

[Erato]

Not so many years of experience, but if the only real issue is the middle name, I wouldn't consider that to be much of a problem.  Perhaps Aubrey refers to a family friend, or it was a name that was in the news at the time.  I have ancestors whose names were chosen for those kind of reaons - one named after a presidential candidate, one after a college president, one after a postmaster, etc.

[saworth]

Ok, Erato, many thanks for all your help with all this.  I shall presume it is 'My' Alice, unless something comes up in the future to question it!  I don't know why she would have bothered to add a middle name for the sake of it - if only she knew the confusion she was going to cause over 100 years later!   Sally

p.s.  Thank you too to Shelley for all her help.

[Erato]

You could look around to see if there was anyone named Aubrey [first name or surname] at the time and place where she was born.  You might find a neighbor or prominent local citizen or clergyman or something who was the source of the name.

I don't know enough about English birth certificates to know whether it is critical that no middle name was mentioned.  Maybe they just couldn't decide and so left her with no middle name initially and then Aubrey was added unofficially later.  Surely tacking on a middle name later wouldn't require any formal name change.  I have an inlaw who was just registered in the US with initials because his parents couldn't decide.

[saworth]

It isn't important to have a middle name - one of my children has and the other hasn't (because we thought his name would look too long when he had to write it down on forms!)  It just seems very unusual to add one later in life.  I am thinking the best way to go with this, from the information you and Shelley have found for me, is to make contact on the web somewhere in Monterey, looking for descendants and see if anyone replies?!   

[Erato]

It just seems very unusual to add one later in life.

 

Whatever.  It doesn't strike me as at all odd.