Author Topic: Double identity? I am totally confounded  (Read 642 times)

Offline Erato

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Double identity? I am totally confounded
« on: Saturday 16 May 20 00:50 BST (UK) »
I have found something bizarre - don't know what to make of it.  Indeed, I am totally confounded.  I have never heard of Phillip H. O'Connor.  I refer to this record at Find-a-Grave:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/3739968/philip-harry-o_connor

As far as it goes, everything in this account of James A. Logan agrees more or less with what I have found.  In addition:

1)  According to newspaper reports, James A. Logan was divorced from his first wife 1899.

2)  the WW1 draft registration which refers to his cousin "Harley" in Appleton, Wisconsin.  This was  almost surely, his cousin Harland [not Harley] C. Logan who did live in Appleton, Wisconsin.  It is very odd that he listed a cousin as nearest relative inasmuch as he had a wife and three children, an ex-wife and two children, and four brothers all living in California in 1918.  Inexplicable, really.

3)  In 1940, James A. Logan was living in Riverside, California with a third wife, Rebecca.
http://www.rootschat.com/links/01pgt/

4) There is a California death record for James A. Logan in Riverside.  It is identical to the death record for Phillip H. O'Connor.

James A. Logan, death
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VG5F-1ZQ

Phillip H. O'Connor, death
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VPF7-JW1

>>>>>>

I have always wondered how James Logan wound up in Cuba and I suspected that he must have enlisted in the army [his first wife did divorce him for desertion].  Could he have used a fake name?  I have not found any other plausible Phillip H. O'Connor born in Wisconsin in 1872.  What on earth is going on?
Wiltshire:  Banks, Taylor
Somerset:  Duddridge, Richards, Barnard, Pillinger
Gloucestershire:  Barnard, Marsh, Crossman
Bristol:  Banks, Duddridge, Barnard
Down:  Ennis, McGee
Wicklow:  Chapman, Pepper
Wigtownshire:  Logan, Conning
Wisconsin:  Ennis, Chapman, Logan, Ware
Maine:  Ware, Mitchell, Tarr, Davis

Offline Brentor boy

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Re: Double identity? I am totally confounded
« Reply #1 on: Saturday 16 May 20 07:35 BST (UK) »
On the application for a grave marker attached to the "Find a grave"  entry, it clearly states "Philip Harry O'Connor, AKA James A Logan"
Surely that makes it quite plain WHAT he did. WHY he did it is another question.

Offline Crumblie

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Re: Double identity? I am totally confounded
« Reply #2 on: Saturday 16 May 20 09:07 BST (UK) »
Sometimes people enlisted under a different name to hide the fact that they had previously deserted or that they were running away from something. In my research I have found two distant cousins whose WW1 attestation papers show their given names as well as another name they were also known as.

Offline Erato

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Re: Double identity? I am totally confounded
« Reply #3 on: Saturday 16 May 20 13:41 BST (UK) »
"Surely that makes it quite plain WHAT he did."

Yes, but how did he get his death registered twice under two different names, one of which he apparently hadn't used for ~40 years?
Wiltshire:  Banks, Taylor
Somerset:  Duddridge, Richards, Barnard, Pillinger
Gloucestershire:  Barnard, Marsh, Crossman
Bristol:  Banks, Duddridge, Barnard
Down:  Ennis, McGee
Wicklow:  Chapman, Pepper
Wigtownshire:  Logan, Conning
Wisconsin:  Ennis, Chapman, Logan, Ware
Maine:  Ware, Mitchell, Tarr, Davis


Offline RJ137

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Re: Double identity? I am totally confounded
« Reply #4 on: Saturday 16 May 20 16:35 BST (UK) »
My guess is that he may have created a new identity and joined the military to avoid possible support payments.

As far as his name appearing twice (James A. Logan & Phillip H. O'Connor)in the death records, those records are an index, not the actual record. I've seen this happen before when an individual's death certificate list an "aka" name for a person. Both names will recorded on a death index.

You see this same situation with other records at Family Search, particularly with some of the marriage records. If I remember right the Florida marriage index is like that. If a previous married woman gets married again, her name will appear twice on the marriage index. Once with her married  name & once with her maiden name, with both having the same licence number. The actual marriage record will have both names, but when transcribed to the index, both those names will appear.

To receive any of the benefits from the time he served in the military he would need to use the name he used when in the service.

1900 census: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M318-49H

Even though there is WWI Draft registration card for him (James A. Logan) I doubt he served in WWI, so military benefits would be through his earlier time in the military as Phillip H O'Connor.

Offline Erato

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Re: Double identity? I am totally confounded
« Reply #5 on: Saturday 16 May 20 17:01 BST (UK) »
Thanks.  Once I found out he was using the name O'Connor, I quickly found the 1900 census.  It's a shame the Riverside death certificates are not online at FamilySearch.  It would be interesting to know if his certificate had both names and who the informant was.  I wonder why he was buried under a name that he hadn't used for years?  I suppose maybe his third wife or the kids just did it to save money by putting him in the national cemetery and having the government pay for the stone and to do so they had to call him Philip O'Connor.
Wiltshire:  Banks, Taylor
Somerset:  Duddridge, Richards, Barnard, Pillinger
Gloucestershire:  Barnard, Marsh, Crossman
Bristol:  Banks, Duddridge, Barnard
Down:  Ennis, McGee
Wicklow:  Chapman, Pepper
Wigtownshire:  Logan, Conning
Wisconsin:  Ennis, Chapman, Logan, Ware
Maine:  Ware, Mitchell, Tarr, Davis

Offline Crumblie

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Re: Double identity? I am totally confounded
« Reply #6 on: Saturday 16 May 20 17:22 BST (UK) »
Perhaps it is because he is buried in a veterans grave?

Offline Erato

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Re: Double identity? I am totally confounded
« Reply #7 on: Saturday 16 May 20 17:32 BST (UK) »
Well, yes.  The wife and kids could have buried him under the name that they all used and that he used for all but one year of his life or they could bury him under a name that he had used briefly 40 years before.  Presumably the military cemetery required that they use his military name.  That's what they chose to do - I wonder why?
Wiltshire:  Banks, Taylor
Somerset:  Duddridge, Richards, Barnard, Pillinger
Gloucestershire:  Barnard, Marsh, Crossman
Bristol:  Banks, Duddridge, Barnard
Down:  Ennis, McGee
Wicklow:  Chapman, Pepper
Wigtownshire:  Logan, Conning
Wisconsin:  Ennis, Chapman, Logan, Ware
Maine:  Ware, Mitchell, Tarr, Davis