Cornwall Aliases 1500s and 1600s

[Ayashi]

I've been poking around in the parish registers in the 1500s and 1600s (Gerrans, St Just area) and there seem to be an unusual number of people on christenings, marriages and burials who were Bloggs alias Smith. My 12th great grandfather married as Bastian JACK alias CLIMOW (possibly CHIMOW) and his dau married as Joan BASTIAN alias JACK (sounds like patronymics? I have pondered if Bastian's father might be Jack CLIMOW...) but there are a whole host of others, many of which do seem to be Surname alias Surname rather than one or other being a forename type surname and not just christenings where their surname might be ambiguous if they were illegitimate.

Has anyone come across this or know why it might be that so many of them had aliases?

Ayashi

[rosie99]

Have you seen this article
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~staustell/Word_Doc/Life/Aliases.htm

[Ayashi]

Thank you for that Rosie! Very interesting article.

Bastian remains a mystery nonetheless! I might have found a will for his brother Arthur, hopefully that will shed additional light on the matter 

[philipsearching]

Hallo, Ayashi

I can't help on the reason for aliases, but I am a distant cousin of yours!  Bastian JACK was my 11x Great Grandfather.

Bastian JACK (d1615) m1567 Katherine LANNARTH (d1602)
Thomas JACK (1580-1659) m1609 Thomasin VYVYAN (1576-1653)
Bastian JACK (1611-1682) m1634 Jane JENKIN (d1682)
Thomasin JAKE (1634-1714) m1664 Robert TREWARTHA (d1715)
and so on down a TREWARTHA line
and so on down a JAMES line
and so on to a RICHARDSON line
leading to me.

Hallo, cousin!
Philip

[KGarrad]

There are a couple of articles, re Aliases, on the Devon GenUKI site:

http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DEV/NamesPersonal/AliasesDiscriminant
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DEV/NamesPersonal/Aliases

[Ayashi]

Thanks KGarrad

Hi cousin Philip!

Of the children of Thomasin/Tamsin JAKE and Robert TREWARTHA, I am descended from son Robert TREWARTHA who married Philippa ROWE- going down the Trewartha line until Persis TREWARTHA married William RICHARDS. The Trewartha family seem to be quite prolific and popular among family historians (why is it that the lines I'm most interested in seem to be the most deserted??) My mother even had two DNA matches on that side on Ancestry (including one with whom Thomasin and Robert were the common ancestors), which is quite pleasing.

I assume from the fact you have his date of death that you've seen Bastian's will? I think I automatically went cross-eyed when I first looked at it but it unravelled eventually!

It's of some annoyance to me that Bastian's son Thomas is the only one I can find a christening of- I've traced the children mentioned in the will otherwise. I know that Bastian had a brother called Arthur and there is indeed an Arthur JACK (possibly also CLIMOW) in the area and potentially left a will himself, which I'm hoping may be illuminating once I finally get my hands on it. Oddly I think Bastian's daughter Ann left a will as well, unless it is coincidence- another will I'd like to get my hands on, as she was unmarried. I fear that in terms of parish records we may well have reached the very limit of what is available.

Nice to meet you,
Ayashi

[philipsearching]

Hallo,  ayashi

Bastian would have been born around the time registration began.  Not all parishes started immediately, and not all registers have survived, so unless the family show up on manorial rolls I think we are stuck.  I agree that the lack of baptisms for his children is annoying - I have searched JACK and CLIMO with spelling variants, and tried searching for children using just Bastian for the father, but no luck yet.

I am sending a pm.
Philip