Alice Kershaw Musk - Rawtenstall

[Road Runner]

Yes it is odd but it cerainly look like it was an error and they are the same person.
I don't think this Elizabeth who possibly could be Alice's mother is the person I am looking for because Alice's birth certificate does give mother's maiden name as Musk and not Kershaw.
Thanks

[heywood]

Which Elizabeth do you mean?
I don’t think anyone has suggested anyone for her mother, other than a possibility of the Elizabeth Musk who married and emigrated.

[wilcoxon]

Yes it is odd but it cerainly look like it was an error and they are the same person.
I don't think this Elizabeth who possibly could be Alice's mother is the person I am looking for because Alice's birth certificate does give mother's maiden name as Musk and not Kershaw.
Thanks

What is the exact date of her birth. You have put January but what date.

[Road Runner]

Alice's birthday - 23 January 1878. Address Pickup Building, Lord Street, Rawtenstall.

[wilcoxon]

Alice  Harwood b 23 Jan 1878.
Still alive in 1939.
Harold and Jack are with her , also a  possible daughter in law Kathleen.
166 Haslington Road.

I think Alice and Elizabeth from earlier 1881 and 1891 are the same person. 
She would have been too young in 1881 to give details in the census and possibly her Grandparents  just entered their surname.


It's just finding the link between Kershaw and Musk.

[heywood]

I think you are right re the child Elizabeth/Alice.
It just seems strange that, if she is Alice Kershaw Musk and one of the Kershaws was her father, that she didn’t name him on her marriage.

This is just a thought with no basis but I  wonder if there was an agreement before birth that she would be raised by Ann Kershaw, hence the name as a middle name.

Added
I mean that the name Kershaw was given to her even though her father might not have been a Kershaw - just part of an agreement.

It seems though as if it will never be solved.

[Road Runner]

Hello Haywood,
The thought had crossed my mind that perhaps her mother Elizabeth was a Kershaw but it was the father who was a Musk. The only problem with this is that she gave her surname on the birth certificate as Musk. There is a very small chance that she may have lied when registering the birth in order to give the child her father’s name without naming the individual. However, with so many what if’s, I have discounted this theory.
Maybe one day a DNA link will solve the mystery. 
Regards

[heywood]

Yes.
Going off the address, it seems highly likely that she was Elizabeth Musk.
She may then have given the Kershaw name because the father was a Kershaw.

Then it becomes unusual if the child is the one we think was raised by ‘grandmother Ann Kershaw’, why did she marry as Musk. Presumably because she was registered as Musk.
Why was she not raised by a Musk family member, when they lived closeby.

Or, more unlikely, that an informal ‘adoption’ had been arranged prior to birth.
DNA might be the only way as you say.

[Road Runner]

After quite a bit of searching I have come to the conclusion until proved otherwise that Alice Kershaw Musk was the daughter of Elizabeth Jane Kershaw who I believed registered the child stating that she was a Musk giving her daughter her father’s name, hence the Kershaw Musk.

As you have said Alice has been referred to as Alice or Elizabeth on several occasions in the census but they are one and the same.

An Elizabeth Jane Kershaw did marry a George Barnes in Haslingden in 1887 so I will send for the marriage certificate to see if this is Alice’s mother, hopefully by confirming her father’s name as Thomas Kershaw.

Will update when it arrives.

Thanks