Confused about John Lester maybe using his stepfather name on M/C. Why do we think Charles was his stepfather not his father and why would John use his name?
John would use his step-father’s Christian name “Charles” on the marriage record, because he didn’t know who his real father was. He recorded it as Charles Lester, because if he had recorded his father as Charles Doyle then that would have exposed the fact that he was illegitimate, and all the shame that came with that.
In my experience, this sort of thing is not uncommon with children who don’t know their real father’s name. I can’t speak for Trish, but I expect she has come across similar examples.
I added Charles Lester as a possible 3rd great grandfather on Anc and got the suggestions of a Sarah Boddes/ Boddis/ Boddies/ Boddice as his wife and George Lester/ Hannah Wilkinson as his parents. It also gave me DNA links through all these 4 people. It looks like Charles/ Sarah had John Lester in 1811 but also Harriet Lester in the same year. Twins or opposite ends of the year? Is this checkable?
Harriet Lester (daughter of Charles and Sarah) was baptised in Wolverhampton on 21 Jan 1811
Also in same family -
John in 1815, George in 1819, Samuel in 1823, Thomas in 1825, Eliza in 1827
All baptisms in Wolverhampton - The father Charles Lester was a
miner.His wife was Sarah Boddes and they married in Wolverhampton 12 Mar 1810.
There appears to be no connection to Lichfield, or to the John Lester baptised in Lichfield 24 Mar 1811.I would be extremely wary taking information from trees on Ancestry, where people make mistakes and everyone else copies. Whoever you have a DNA link to may well have assumed Charles Lester was correct, and has not done complete checking. You would need to look in more detail at their tree, and see where they have gone wrong.
