Apologies for having taken so long to respond to recent replies (for which I am most grateful). I've just returned from the library, having used their access to the 1939 register, following a suggestion made in this thread. There is, as far as I can see, no promising record that could refer to my paternal grandfather, Chriss Buckley. However, I am excited by the suggestion made here, that Chriss might have used Kershaw as an assumed name. I had already thought that he might have taken his mother's maiden name, Hunter, but I can see that Kershaw is a possibility worth pursuing. Kershaw was a surname important to this family: Chriss's paternal grandmother was Sarah Kershaw, and two of Chriss's siblings were given Kershaw as a middle name (Sarah and Tom). I don't think that the Kershaws so far examined by contributors to this thread are likely contenders, but I will be checking them out thoroughly in the next few days. An added complication here is that two quite independent pieces of family lore suggest that when Chriss left his wife and son, he went to Northern Ireland, to Limavady, to be precise. Whether he did, whether he stayed there ... who knows? And, of course, the 1939 record for Northern Ireland is not available online––apparently FOI requests can be made, but an address has to be specified. The search continues, and if any member has further suggestions for how to proceed I shall be grateful to try them. I have googled Kershaw and Limavady and found a couple of names: on Monday I'll try to contact the people concerned to ask if they know of a forebear who might, just might be Chriss ... thanks again to all who have contributed.
