I'm once again trying to locate the origins of an ancestor of mine, Elizabeth Higgins, who married William Leake in Orston, Notts, in 1790. Her gravestone suggests a yob of 1756 so if this was her first marriage, she was quite old. (William was a widower).
Anyway, there are no Higgins in the Orston records apart from this marriage but there are a few Huggins- but I've just realised that these are recorded as "alias".
I only have transcriptions from the FHS CD, I haven't seen the records, but the transcriptions show the following at Orston, with father's name Huggins:
1774 12 26 Son Benjamin Thomas HUGGINS Jane ORSTON St Mary Alias KEMP
1775 11 20 Son William Thomas HUGGINS Jane ORSTON St Mary Alias KEMP
1777 04 02 Dau Mary Thomas HUGGINS Jane ORSTON St Mary
1780 09 04 Dau Elizabeth Thomas HUGGINS Jane ORSTON St Mary Alias KEMP
1785 04 12 Son Jonathan Thomas HUGGINS Jane ORSTON St Mary P. Alias KEMP
1787 04 19 Dau Mary Thomas HUGGINS Jane ORSTON St Mary P.
and then the same children (except for Mary 1777, who wasn't listed as "alias") under the father's name of Kemp, alias Huggins.
There are 2 obvious infant burials under Huggins, none under Kemp:
1779 03 18 Elizabeth HUGGINS Orston Dau of Thomas & Jane (note this does not match the baptism above but must have been an older child)
1783 05 16 Mary HUGGINS Orston Dau of Thomas & Jane
I'm guessing that Thomas and Jane weren't married but have never seen this "alias" listed before.
If anyone is going to the records office, would it be possible to look at the PR to see if this makes it any clearer? -- who was Huggins, who was Kemp? any other comments or anything that might help?
and does anyone have any other theories re this "alias"?
thanks!