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  • Any ideas?

    Elsie Radley Hawkins changed her name by deed poll to Colthup on 15.1.1943, then changed it back to Hawkins by another deed poll on 29.3.1943. She was unmarried at the time. Any ideas as to why she would do that?

    My theory (without a shred of evidence) is that she was, or thought she was, pregnant and the father, called Colthup, was away on active service, maybe a PoW, and unlikely to be back on leave before the birth, and she wanted the child to be born a Colthup, but then she found she was not pregnant (or had a miscarriage) so changed it back.

    Elsie married Reginald C A Colthup in 1947 using her maiden name of Hawkins. I can find no issue from this marriage so nobody currently alive to ask.

    But there was also a marriage of a Reginald C A Colthup to Isabel M Wallace in 1923, and I can only find one man of this name, born in 1899, so another theory is that Elsie was in a relationship with him and was waiting for a divorce. An Isabel May Colthup died in 1982, born in 1897, this looks like the 1923 wife so if she was divorced by Reginald she retained the Colthup surname.

    Reginald died in 1971. The only child from the marriage to Isabel that I could find was Bernard born 1924 died 1956.
    People: Canton, Wiseman, Colthup, Scrace
    Places: Pembrokeshire, Kent.

  • #2
    What an odd thing to do! (And expensively odd, too).

    I doubt if it was to do with pregnancy. She could have registered the child in any surname she liked, including Colthup. She could have pretended she was married - the registrar wouldn't check if she was or not.

    I would think it was something to do with pretending to be a married woman, say for the benefit of a landlady or a hotelier or maybe even her own family. Or possibly to get her ration cards in her "married" name.

    Maybe she changed it back again because Reginald was angry that she'd done it, for some reason. Otherwise I can't imagine why she bothered, having gone to the trouble and expense of doing it why not keep the new name? We can of course use any surname we want as long as we are not trying to impersonate someone else for gain or malice.

    OC

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    • #3
      Originally posted by Olde Crone Holden View Post
      What an odd thing to do! (And expensively odd, too).

      I doubt if it was to do with pregnancy. She could have registered the child in any surname she liked, including Colthup. She could have pretended she was married - the registrar wouldn't check if she was or not.

      I would think it was something to do with pretending to be a married woman, say for the benefit of a landlady or a hotelier or maybe even her own family. Or possibly to get her ration cards in her "married" name.

      Maybe she changed it back again because Reginald was angry that she'd done it, for some reason. Otherwise I can't imagine why she bothered, having gone to the trouble and expense of doing it why not keep the new name? We can of course use any surname we want as long as we are not trying to impersonate someone else for gain or malice.

      OC
      Yes, a very odd thing to do but as we know even now many people believe you have to prove a marriage to register a child and to have a Deed Poll to change a surname so I guess she may have been operating on that basis and as surmised the child did not materialise for whatever reason so she reverted back presumably because money was no object.

      If only we could ask them now

      Margaret

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      • #4
        Margaret

        Yes, you could be right, people THOUGHT you had to do certain things and acted accordingly, thus accounting for a lot of strange behaviour!

        OC

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        • #5
          Maybe it was to do with Reginald's pay. A soldier could elect to have a regular allotment sent to his wife - this would be a paper transfer of money and the "wife" would need to have the same surname as the soldier. I know my mother had a savings account into which her allotment was banked, but how the transfer of funds from the army to the bank account operated, I've no idea.
          Could be that the official wife was already on record with the army, or, as there was no marriage cert as evidence that Elsie WAS his wife, the plans may have fallen through.
          WW2 was a great melting pot resulting in lots of "second" relationships.

          Jay
          Janet in Yorkshire



          Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

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          • #6
            Yes, I did think of allotment of pay, but this would have been a fraud doomed to failure really, as the first wife would certainly be registered to receive the pay already. Maybe Elsie didn't know he was already married though?

            OC

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            • #7
              Thanks for your ideas. I have no evidence that he was in the forces in the war and would have been in his 40's so perhaps unlikely. If there was just the one man involved in the two marriages then maybe something to do with that.
              People: Canton, Wiseman, Colthup, Scrace
              Places: Pembrokeshire, Kent.

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              • #8
                http://www.deedpoll.org.uk/WhyDoPeop...TheirName.html A very interesting read, a family member of mine just changed her first name because shortly after the birth the Mother changed her mind and started to call the child by another first name.

                Edna

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                • #9
                  I've just realised - the marriage cert for Elsie and Reginald should state whether he is divorced or a bachelor.

                  That's an interesting site Edna, but of course it doesn't tell you that you don't have to use a Deed Poll to change your name, you just start using the new name (but probably easier now to use Deed Poll as everything needs a paper trail these days).

                  Also, out of the cobwebby attic of my brain lol, comes the idea that you can never change your first name IF you were baptised in the Christian faith. that is, the church will never recognise your change of baptismal name, whether it is done officially or not.

                  OC

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                  • #10
                    People who change their name do not think about the poor family history researcher who may come in the next century. They should be more considerate!
                    People: Canton, Wiseman, Colthup, Scrace
                    Places: Pembrokeshire, Kent.

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