Here's one reason why the name changed, but was the name made up, or was there a baptism for this name but the child died:
Nowadays prospective employers have no way of knowing if a prospective employee has been in prison unless that person informs them. This was not always the case because previously employers had to affix tax stamps on employment cards and if a job hunter showed a card that had no affixed stamps then it was obvious the person had been in prison.
Hi Rena
I'm not aware of a child that died. His eldest son was named William though. I have no idea where 'Smith' came from but it's a pretty common name so may be it was just made up to blend in?
I had no idea about tax stamps or employment cards so that was really interesting. I cannot find him in a 1911 census record, so maybe I should look into that more. As far as I know, he had six children in total, born 1909, 1914, 1916, 1921, 1928 and 1929.
Through the grapevine it was always presented to me that it was changed because of a prison sentence (possibly in Leicester) but I've found no evidence of that.
