Hi Cando,
Hooray..... I was starting to think that Gary would never accept that William James/Ernest and Wilfred Eric were the one and same. Now do you also accept that Mabel Jean and Rachel May are also the one and same person? I wonder if she had to provide a birth certificate for an aged pension c1950 hence the correction to the electoral roll.
I very much doubt William/Wilfred was the father of Alan Verdun/Vincent. Nothing to do with an error at registration....it was cross referenced to be registered under the name of HARTSHORN ie the birth is registered twice both as HARPER and HARTSHORN.
I will mention here that it not usual practice for fellow forum members to purchase certs to help the OP along the way....and a thank you would have been nice
Gary have you printed this thread and given it to your uncle?
I do hope you have one of the many family tree software programmes that are available
Cheers
Cando
First off, a million thank you's. I really can't thank you enough for the time, effort and money (!) you've put in to gather and present all of the records and information you've provided. I apologise for not saying that earlier, because I was certainly thinking it.
I spoke with my uncle this afternoon and directed him to this discussion. He said that whilst he knew Rachel May as Grandma Harper, her friends all knew her as 'Jean'. He knows much more about her than me of course, and was surprised that she was in the electoral role at 200 Victoria Street (the orphanage) as Mabel Jean. He agrees that it is indeed Grandma Harper and that she does appear to have had a name change.
We are going to do some more research - I have an aunt that I've not spoken with yet who lived with my grandmother for some years before my Nan died and she still lives in Nan's house.
I also had a talk to Maurie and he has a whole bunch of information that he is going to send me.
I'm 99% convinced
so I'm going to pull together all the information we have, build a timeline, find out whatever else I can, talk to my uncle some more (and he's going to talk to his brother and sister) and then build the rest of the tree.
I've looked at some family tree software but really don't know which one is best.
Gary