Distinctive names are all well and good ... as long as they stick to them!!!
One of my most problematic great great grandfathers is Thomas King Spooner. A nice easy name, you'd have thought ... but ... well!
I've still to invest in all the certificates to prove it, but I THINK I've puzzled him out.
Born: Thomas Escott Scott Spooner, Clerkenwell, 1857, only child of Edgar Spooner (a tailor) and his second wife Elizabeth Spooner (nee Escott). He had an older half sister called Mary Spooner, and a second older half sister called Louisa Mary King Spooner had died before he was born.
Elizabeth Spooner died between 1857 and 1863. Unfortunately, I have been unable to locate the family in the 1861 census, so I cannot say if this was before or after the census date.
Edgar Spooner adopted the name King, calling himself Edgar Spooner King, and then simply Edgar King. Thomas Escott Scott Spooner also appears to have adopted the name King, becoming (for now) simply Thomas King.
Edgar Spooner King married Eliza Wright in 1863, and they had three children, called Eve, Adam and John.
By the time of the 1871 census, Thomas King had left home and was an errand boy in the household of John Jacob Schafer at Coningham Terrace, Hammersmith (RG10 Piece 63 Folio 125 page 25).
[Edgar Spooner appears in the 1871 census as Edgar King, living with his wife Eliza and children Adam and Eve (John was not born until about 1873) in Artillery Lane, Bishopsgate, City of London (RG10 Piece 416 Folio 19 page 31); Eliza died between 1873 and 1877, and Edgar was married for a fourth time - reverting to the name Edgar Spooner - to Mary Ann Benge in Wandsworth in 1877. Mary Ann Spooner died in Lambeth in 1878, and in the 1881 census Edgar King is shown living at 5 Fanshaw Street, Shoreditch with his 8 year old son John (RG11 Piece 394 Folio 113 page 56). I do not have Edgar in any later censuses, but neither have I found his death.]
On 2 April 1879 Thomas King Spooner married Harriet Martindale at St Mary Hoxton, Middlesex.
In the 1881 census they appear as Thos and Harriet Spooner, living at 19 Buckingham High Street, Islington (RG11 Piece 231 Folio 11 page 19).
They have children Frances Mary K Spooner (1884), Augustine John K Spooner (1886), Joseph King Spooner (born and died 1888), Kathleen Honora Spooner (born 9 February 1890).
In the 1891 Census they are listed at 166 Brady Street Dwellings, Brady Street, Whitechapel as Thomas K Spooner and Harriet Spooner, with children Frances, Augustine and Kathleen (RG12 Piece 279 Folio 28 page 28)
They have a further three children: Mildred King Spooner (born 1892, died 1894); Thomas King Spooner (born 1894); Harriet King Spooner (born 1897)
The 1901 census shows Thomas King Spooner, Harriett Spooner and their five surviving children at 13 High Street, Stratford Riverside, West Ham (RG13 Piece 1562 Folio 18 page 27)
Harriet Spooner died in 1905.
In the 1911 census, Thomas King Spooner and his son Thomas King Spooner are listed at 83 Diggon Street, Stepney (RG14PN1591 RG78PN56 RD21 SD1 ED20 SN185)
His daughter whose name at birth was registered as Kathleen Honora Spooner (no King: this is my great grandmother and I have her birth certificate - DEFINITELY no King) married in 1912. Her name on the marriage certificate is recorded as Kathleen Honora King Spooner.
I have not found Thomas King Spooner's death ... unless he is Thomas Spooner, 75, who died in the Tendring registration district in 1932 (obtaining this death certificate is high on my list of research priorities).
Now come ON guys ... if you're born with a name which is as helpful to future genealogists as Thomas Escott Scott Spooner ... for pity's sake MAKE USE OF IT!!!!!
