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Living "over the brush!"

Posted: 15 May 2019 11:51
by gwilym'smum
Hi,
I would appreciated any thoughts on the following situation.
My 2x gt aunt, Ann Yale, had an illegitimate child. I have given her an unknown spouse with status, "never married".
She then married George and had 5 children. I have made George spouse no. 2 in the usual way. George died in 1874 in Stoke.
In 1881 she is living in dreadful conditions in Stoke with a chap named Henry Ford and she is recorded as his wife and the children all have the surname Ford. They do not have any children.
12 months later she has married the man next door, William Swinnerton, whose wife had just died. They were together for several years but had no children.
I have recorded William as husband no. 3 as they did marry but my query is, should I record Henry Ford as no. 3 with status "never married" making William no. 4 or just ignore Henry Ford?
This is only the tip of the iceberg for the lives of this line!
Any thoughts would be appreciated
Ann

Re: Living "over the brush!"

Posted: 15 May 2019 12:13
by ColeValleyGirl
I would include Henry Ford with the status 'never married' -- they may not have had children but he is part of her life story. I would however take with a pinch of salt the children having the surname Ford -- was this in a census? If so, it might have been an assumption by the enumerator. I would record it, yes, but I would investigate if they had ever used that surname in any other context.

Re: Living "over the brush!"

Posted: 15 May 2019 16:17
by dewilkinson
I have had exactly this situation several times and I agree with Helen, enter as a spouse and set the marriage status to Never Married. When children have a temporary surname I record it as an alternative name with the census citation and include in the census text something like "unmarried son as Joe Bloggs working as .....". This approach makes it clear in reports and diagrams what happened in the life story.

Re: Living "over the brush!"

Posted: 15 May 2019 16:50
by gwilym'smum
Thank you very much for the replies.
As far as I know they never used Ford at any other time and in fact the eldest daughter who was living next door as a lodger with my great grandmother still retained her Hunt surname and another of the daughters who was called Ford on this 1881 census married with her Hunt name. Also it is a good idea to record them as using another name.
Thank you again
Ann

Re: Living "over the brush!"

Posted: 15 May 2019 22:31
by victor
My great grandmother had an illegitimate child (my grandfather) he was baptised with his mother's maiden name. On my tree I left his father's name out. That is is mother is the only name listed and the normal spuses name is blank. His mother later married Charles Markham and they had children. This was a new family under her and her husbands name. My grandfather then used the Markham name even he married. I have no idea if he had his surname changed by deed poll.
I had a DNA test to see if Charles Markham could be his father. The test showed he was not and that his father was of polish origin.
I have kept my grandfather name apart from his mother and Charles' children and listed him woth the alternative name of Markham.
A mothert with an illegitimate child shgould be listed as 'never married' as the child's father is not listed

Victor