« Reply #8 on: Wednesday 08 June 22 22:46 BST (UK) »
In the 1960s and sometime into the 1970s my husband was sent a form by the taxman (Inland Revenue).
In those days men's tax code took account of whether he had a wife and children to support. I sat with my husband providing birth dates, etc., just as my mother sat with my father to provide him with important information.
I'm thinking that your character filled in his form with make believe family so that he could keep more of his wages/salary. If the Inland Revenue checked the census forms they would see he listed his family.
Aberdeen: Findlay-Shirras,McCarthy: MidLothian: Mason,Telford,Darling,Cruikshanks,Bennett,Sime, Bell: Lanarks:Crum, Brown, MacKenzie,Cameron, Glen, Millar; Ross: Urray:Mackenzie: Moray: Findlay; Marshall/Marischell: Perthshire: Brown Ferguson: Wales: McCarthy, Thomas: England: Almond, Askin, Dodson, Well(es). Harrison, Maw, McCarthy, Munford, Pye, Shearing, Smith, Smythe, Speight, Strike, Wallis/Wallace, Ward, Wells;Germany: Flamme,Ehlers, Bielstein, Germer, Mohlm, Reupke