Bankruptcy

[grumpy]

In the 1840's, if a husband had been declared bankrupt and then died could the wife be liable for his

debts. ? As I have indicated previously my g/g/grandmother remarried within 3 months of her first

husbands death, placed her 3 children in the workhouse and then disappeared along with new hubby.

After years of search with no results I have come to think that they may have changed their names

(unofficially) and as we say "done a runner". If the original question is affirmative then this could be

a valid reason for their disappearance.

[PhotoFamily]

Do you have the parents' wills? I just had a breakthrough when a father's will named his eldest son - by his new name - and the city that he was living in.

[Olde Crone Holden]

His estate would have been liable for his debts. As married women could not own property back then, they could not be pursued for debt.

OC

[grumpy]

Thanks Photofamily and OC. It looks like another of my pet theories have been shot down in flames.

[Olde Crone Holden]

But of course they may have THOUGHT they would be liable for her dead husband's debts, so it's still a valid reason for a name change/disappearance.

My 2 x GGF went bankrupt in the 1840s and changed his name. Took me absolutely YEARS to work out who he really was.

OC

[grumpy]

Name changes can be totally frustrating. So where do you start I would expect that their Christian names would

be the same and ages, only the surname being changed. Not very easy to do a search on Christian names unfortunately.

[Olde Crone Holden]

I found mine by a complete stroke of luck. A grandchild of the man who changed his name was given a most unusual middle name and this kept bugging me - what was the significance of this in a family of Marys and Johns etc.

It turned out that the unusual middle name was the original surname! When I looked more closely at the registration of these children, all had the original surname somewhere along the line. I think they must have thought they had to use the "real" name for legal documents.

OC

[FamilyHistoryStories]

I found mine by a complete stroke of luck. A grandchild of the man who changed his name was given a most unusual middle name and this kept bugging me - what was the significance of this in a family of Marys and Johns etc.

It turned out that the unusual middle name was the original surname! When I looked more closely at the registration of these children, all had the original surname somewhere along the line. I think they must have thought they had to use the "real" name for legal documents.

OC

I have had the same with a family of mine. On most census returns they are Waters/Walters. But each birth marriage and death they are Boulter's.

All bar one who died in her late teens and was presumably registered by her employer. Her death is registered as Waters.

My grandmother only remembers them as Waters too.

[kylejustin]

oh i have that situation too! my man was called ford, but i could not find a birth in his hometown, in fact there were no fords period. he had appeared outta thin air in the 1850's to get married, and gave 2 kids 'poole' as a middle name. i was looking for peter's with birthplace 'hawkesbury' in 1851, and came across a peter poole of the right age......turns out he joined the army against his mum's wishes, and she found out, dragged him home.......so he went and signed up under his step father's name......took me years to work that out!!

[grumpy]

Sigh.....I wish I was so lucky.:(