Ancestor possibly using an assumed name?

[paganmogwai]

Wondered if anyone has any experience of this?  A man I am tracing in one of my trees seems to completely vanish from the record after 1909, yet his wife and children are easy enough to track, and I have marriage and death certs for all except one of them.  On the 1911 census she seems to be living with a man of a different name, for whom I cannot find any records prior to 1910.  In 1920 they had a child together who was given as a middle name the surname of the first man.  Later records show the wife using each surname at different times.  I'm inclined to think they are the same man and for some reason he started using a different name between 1909 and 1910.  I imagine if you only start living under an assumed name if you were hiding from someone or something.  I'd be very interested to hear if anyone else has found anything similar.

[brigidmac]

Came across something similar  once
There was an irish connection and the man inversed first and middle names and used wifes surname .

Can you give the details of when the family used which names .
Its intriguing

[paganmogwai]

Hi Brigid,  yes its a real mystery.  This is what I have so far that I can verify:

Henry James HUMPHREY born 1880 (from Tonbridge in Kent) married Sophia DAVIS born 1882 (from Southampton in Hampshire) in Southampton in 1901. 
They had 4 children: Lewis Henry 1901-1902, Hilda Sophia 1904-1979, Lilian Kate 1906-probably 1925 and Elsie Annie 1909-1945.  I have no trace at all of Henry after that.

On the 1911 census I have Sophia in Liverpool with her three daughters living with a man named John James GLEN born approx 1886.  Her age is incorrect as is her place of birth (which looks to have been filled in by a different hand) but the daughters' ages are correct.

I have a Royal Naval Reserve record for James Glen which gives his wife Sophia as next of kin.  There are various addresses on the record as it runs for a few years, one in Liverpool, the others in Newcastle upon Tyne and district.  Those addresses tally with electoral rolls for James and Sophia Glen in the 1920's.

There are three children registered as being born to James and Sophia Glen:
Doris Humphrey Glen b. 1920, Sidney John Glen 1922-1990 and Norman Glen 1926-1979.  thge addresses given all tally with electoral rolls and the naval record.

I have a death cert for a Lilian Kate Glen in Newcastle in 1925 which states she was the daughter of James Glen and her death was registered by her mother S. Glen.  The address given matches both the electoral roll and the naval record. 

I have a death cert for James Glen in 1933, again the address matches with the electoral roll entry for James and Sophia Glen.

Now, of the children only four married.  On their marriage certs they gave the father's name as listed here:

Hilda married in 1945 as Hilda Humphreys (sic) and said her father was Henry Humphreys (sic) deceased.
Elsie married in 1930 as Elsie Glen and said her father was John Glen.
Doris married in 1939 as Doris Glen and said her father was John Glen deceased.
Norman married in 1950 and said his father was John Glen deceased.

Sophia died in 1954 at her daughter Hilda's home in Blackpool, Lancashire and was described as Sophia Humphreys, widow of Henry Humphreys.

Doris's marriage in 1939 was witnessed by Elsie and her husband (who were parents to my adoptive Dad)

On the 1939 register Sophia is using the name Humphreys and living in Hendon with her son Norman Glen, just a few streets away from Hilda and her family and also from Elsie and her family.

Both Henry James Humphrey and James Glen are described as ships fireman or marine fireman on various birth certs.

The dates of birth given on the 1939 register for Sophia, Hilda, Elsie, Doris and Norman all match the various birth certs.

I accept I'll probably never ever know what happened but its a big mystery!

Just today I decided to add James Glen on my Ancestry tree as a separate spouse to Sophia Davis just to see if it would throw up any hints etc that I might have missed.  Not a thing.  It did throw up 11 Ancestry hints....... all of which are about Henry James Humphrey apart from the 1911 census.

[artifis]

One of my ancestors was illegitimate and throughout his life he alternated between his mother's maiden surname and her later husband's surname - her later husband appears to have actually been his father being recorded as such in the parish baptism records - this was pre birth registration.

Throughout his numerous children's baptisms he changed from one surname to the other several times with the parish record writer sometimes writing alias against both surnames.  His burial parish record records his surname as that of the father recorded as his father on his baptism record but has the other name recorded also in brackets as alias.

It took me ages to unravel what was going on and it was only the lateral thinking of a distant cousin I was collaborating with that resolved it - he 'found' the burial alias comment that I'd overlooked as recorded on the line below in the original parish records but not in the transcribed version that I'd used.  The children with the different surnames sometime kept to what they were baptised under, sometimes not!  Right tangled web. 

We didn't get birth certificates for any of the children apart from my ancestor and my cousin his ancestor, both using my surname which my cousin's mother also used.   So am I one surname or the other?

[ThrelfallYorky]

I found a mother and child who "vanished" when the son was very young. Fortunately I had the son's two Christian names, and the mother's first name, and both came from the same small place in Wales. After a LOT of searching, and with wonderful help from a now departed researcher, we found the pair with a new male, under the very original name of "Smith" in another part of the country. We couldn't find Mr Smith before then, either.
Long story cut short, they seem to have gone off with him, he left his wife and family, and they stayed together until his death. The together had another child, and after "Mr Smith" died,  when he reverted to his original surname, which his younger son adopted..... and his "wife"s older child, the actual relative I was seeking, resumed  an alternation between his mother's original surname, and the surname of her original partner, almost for the rest of his life. (We've never been able to find an actual marriage between his Mum  and that partner ).
It happens!
It's marvellous what you manage to find them and prove it, though.
Took us years, but it shows - never give up!

[paganmogwai]

It took me ages to unravel what was going on and it was only the lateral thinking of a distant cousin I was collaborating with that resolved it - he 'found' the burial alias comment that I'd overlooked as recorded on the line below in the original parish records but not in the transcribed version that I'd used.   

Oh that's a useful tip, I'll keep that kind of thing in mind.  I keep thinking there's some kind of a great story there but I'll likely never know.

[sparrett]

Hi
As you say,concealment is often the motivation for a name change but there are other possibilities too.
How about that Henry, aged bout 30 and married to Sophia, discovered a truth about his own birth and parents.

That the surname GLENN was indeed more truly his name.

How much research have you made into his parents and his early life?

Sue

[Dundee]

Four children born to Sophia in 1901, 1904, 1906, 1909, then nothing until three children also born to Sophia in 1920, 1922 and 1926.  Is that correct?

What was Henry HUMPHREY's occupation when he married?

Did Henry sign his full name on the marriage cert and if so have you compared the 'James' with John's signature on the 1911 census?  He uses a distinctive 'J'.

Debra 

[Dundee]

What was Henry HUMPHREY's occupation when he married?

I see that he was in the ASC until 1903 when discharged medically unfit.

Debra