Unconfigured Ad Widget

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Help with my Grandad please.

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Help with my Grandad please.

    My Grandfather was born Arthur Gibson in Barnsley 1889. Somewhere between 1911 and 1915 he changed his name to Albert Gordon. The reason is unknown. All correspondence in his army record right up until 1921 is done in the name of Albert Gordon. He sent two "change of address" letters to the Army still in this name. He was discharged from the army in 1917 due to injuries. He then married my grandmother in the same year using the name of Albert Gordon Gibson. A month later, the vicar has amended the marriage certificate in front of witnesses to Arthur Gibson. How would the vicar and Register office have found out that he used an assumed name? I am amazed the Army was never notified. Any ideas would be really welcome!:conf:
    Teresa...

  • #2
    The fact that the Vicar amended the cert would suggest to me that it was Arthur himself who requested this change, not that anyone "found out".

    Legally in this country you can use any name you want, as long as you are not doing it with intent to impersonate someone of that name.

    I'm guessing, but I bet his bride was worrying herself sick about the legaility of their marriage because she thought he wasn't entitled to use that name, and made him go to the Vicar and ask for it to be corrected. (In fact, the marriage is valid no matter what names are used, as long as the couple fulfil the other criteria for marriage, so she needn't have worried. It is classed as a clerical error, not an error of fact)

    As for the Army - they don't care what you call yourself. I have seen a number of amended Army records.

    I have heard that many a man joined up under a false name, either because he was underage, or was escaping from some misdemeanour...usually a female, lol. In WW1, you could join up calling yourself Mickey Mouse, the Army wouldn't care, they just wanted gun fodder.

    Did he have a stepfather called Gordon? Was his Gibson father possibly in doubt?

    OC

    Comment


    • #3
      Thanks for that OC, that's a real help. No, there was no stepfather. I suspect he had committed some misdemeanour that he wanted to leave behind and hadn't reckoned that someday his granddaughter would be digging up his past!
      Teresa...

      Comment


      • #4
        Does the name Gibson appear anywhere in your grandmother's tree? Arthur might have changed his name to compliment one of his new relatives (or even one of his own), especially if there was an inheritance attached to it. It's not unknown for a wealthy person's will to stipulate that the heir must take the surname of the testator in order to inherit.

        There's a branch in my own tree where a girl has married and her husband has taken her name, at the request of his father-n-law, so that the wife's family name is carried on.

        My husband's tree also has a case where a baby was given his mother's sister's husband's unusual surname as a middle name, as a compliment to his aunt's new in-laws.
        Looking for Bysh, Potter, Littleton, Parke, Franks, Sullivan, Gosden, Carroll, Hurst, Churcher, Covell, Elverson, Giles, Hawkins, Witherden...

        Comment


        • #5
          I just had a look at the 1911 census. There is an Albert Gibson serving in Hongkong as a male nurse (RAMC)- does this fit in with your information? I also had a look at the other census but none of these, including the 1911 come up with a place of birth as Barnsley. I was wondering if there could be a chance that he joined the army early and as already suggested used his mother's maiden name?

          Comment

          Working...
          X