An ancestor having the last laugh...

[Geordie daughter]

This whole thing started because I finally broke down a brickwall last week, and found out where Charles, the son whose marriage certificate I ordered this week, had been working in Ipswich - he had been making corks for a William Jackson Chaplin, wine and spirit merchant, in Westgate Street. I then wanted to see if I could finally link the J. Newton and Son, cork cutters, at 50 St. John Street in London, with my lot, as they lived cheek-by-jowl in the early years, and I've now discovered, in later years too. Alas, there is as yet, no hard evidence to say they're definitely related, but I'm hoping...!

[iluleah]

When I  began researching ( pre internet) I could never find out anything about my Great grandfather, I knew where he lived and the head stone in the village "told" me where he was buried. I couldn't find any of his children's baptisms yet I "knew" they would have been baptised.

Thankfully I was told my great grandmothers maiden name and where she came from, found her and her family but nothing about  her husband it was really frustrating, then a stroke of luck as I searched all the households in the village she lived in and found the family surname in the house was a grandson with the same surname and a visitor with a first name I had named my own daughter along with a surname of Smith, turned out after lots more research "grandson" was my great grandfather and the "visitor" his sister.
Great grandfather was born William Smith but changed it and used his middle name and his mothers maiden name, moved counties, it was long and hard research, when I did find my grandfathers baptism along with all his siblings they were all named something different, yet all of them lived their lives ( as I knew them) using their middle names.......... and where the grave stone is my Great grandfather is not buried there, but 5 miles away in another village.

They certainly don't make it very easy, do they?

[Geordie daughter]

No, they don't! But then if this was easy, we probably wouldn't be doing it would we?

Having said I've never found any baptisms, I did find this transcription on FindMyPast a day or two ago and went "wrong father," but now I'm beginning to wonder:

Charles Newton, born 1829, bapt 1 April 1838, Finsbury, Middlesex. Parents James and Hannah Newton.

My Charles was born circa 1828. I'd kill to see the original...

[Geordie daughter]

a-l, I think your ancestors just like to have the option of a second name available  Mine opted for one name only until recent generations, and stuck mostly to James, John, Charles, Alfred, Hannah and Henry, with Charles being the most frequently used in my direct line - arrrrgh!

[iluleah]

No, they don't! But then if this was easy, we probably wouldn't be doing it would we?

True and soon forgotten when you break that particular brick wall...then you go onto the next one and the frustration starts all over again 

[MaureeninNY]

Does make you wonder.

Sorry-I haven't really read through all the posts.

Maureen

[Jomot]

My sister - lets call her "D" - is approaching 60 and was named after our dad's sister, who had died quite young.  She's always hated the name though and so uses her middle name, except with the family who still all call her D.

So knowing how much she hates the "D" name I found it hilarious when I first started doing this and discovered that dad's sister wasn't called D after all - she was really called Margaret.  My sister was not quite so amused..... 

[pinefamily]

That's the fun part - I've never been able to locate a baptism for any of the children, who were born between 1825 and 1834, nor their parents' marriage. Hannah came from Newport Pagnell originally, and after Charles's/James's death, married a James Goddard (in 1851). Alfred and Charles were in their late teens around the time when their dad died so I doubt it would have been a case of confusing the stepfather's name with their father's name.

I've often dealt with friends' family trees where they've switched Christian names around or added in new ones, but this is a first for my lot!

Don't be too quick to rule this out. I have seen several instances where the correct surname is used, but the stepfather's first name. I have never been sure if it was the bride or groom mixing it up, or the minister or clerk making assumptions.

[Geordie daughter]

Maureen, you're an absolute treasure - where on earth did you find that image? It's pure gold for me! Just to be difficult, can I ask which church Charles was baptised at, if you know it, as the transcription only says "Finsbury"?

Pinefamily: it looks very much as if the enumerator got it wrong, if Maureen's baptism image is anything to go by, so for all these years my earliest ancestor has been known by the wrong name. It probably wouldn't have come to light for a while longer, if it hadn't been for the fact that I'm finally at a stage in my life where both time and money are less limited, and I can indulge in ordering the odd certificate without feeling guilty.

I did think my ancestor might be a nephew of the St. John Street family and it's entirely possible that he served his apprenticeship with the father, John (born c.1777), and his son James (born c.1814), given my lot were living practically next door. There's also another John Newton (born c.1811) with a corkcutting business in Shoreditch in the 1840s and 50s, who might be John's eldest son, but I have to be careful not to fall into the trap of making assumptions and turning them into fact, Newtons being ten-a-penny.