Genealogy Chat

That is the family!
They all thought there name was Bennett but as far as I can tell the Father (John Bennett) and the Mother (Margaret Blake) never got married.

On the 1901census she is listed as a Bennett and his wife but when there child is born later on in 1901 she is on the birth cert in her maiden name Blake.

Looks like she just didn't want anybody to know that she was not married.

If I'm looking at the right family, there are BMD index entries for

Ida Margaret R Blake
John Henry B B Blake
Elizabeth Maria B Blake
George William B Blake

Can't see Joseph. There's a Joseph Bennett, but he died.

I've got a case like that - one George Hurst married Elizabeth Rimmer in 1862, but Elizabeth died in 1864. By 1871, George is a widower with his unmarried housekeeper Elizabeth Bennett (aged 30) with her three children (all aged 9 or under . . .) . Come 1881, George and Elizabeth are married, and her children are now Hursts, and she's had a few more (presumably George's.)

Nearly as bad is a married-in family. Deborah Chapman had a daughter Mary, then married Henry Dawson and gave her children his name (although there is a marriage record, she is never with him on the census!) and meanwhile a lodger named James South moves in . . . the children of Deborah and (allegedly Henry) then spend their adult life switching between South, Dawson and "Dawson South" whenever they fancy it!

I think "housekeeper" was common misnomer for "mistress" ........ helped to make it look respectable!!


Though what all the neighbours thought as the children kept coming along ...............



I think the usual reason might well have been that one of the parties was already married ......... so look for an earlier marriage!



sylvia

Not that old chesnut !!! We had someone listed as a "housekeeper" and her and the head of the house had eight children over 20 years. Then married; all the kids had double barreled names.

Did you actually look at the image on the 1901 Census?


I'm just wondering what that said re their marital state .............. or whether she was his housekeeper?


that could be the reason why she "reverted" to her maiden name





sylvia

My gt gt grandmother had 8 children and so far all the children, where my cousin and I have got their birth certs to find the father have had no father metioned and registered in her maiden name.
On the 1901 census she was living in the same house as her mother with a "partner " called Nagle. The children were named Nagle.
but she died in 1922 in her maiden name.
Mr Nagle died in 1902.
No marriage record was ever found.

No to be honest just all the other childen on the 1901 census were called Bennett (the Husbands name)

BUT how do you know she married said John Bennett? Have you found the marriage cert?

Sylvia

thanks for the help.
Slightly complicated but here goes
My Great Grandfather was called George William Bennett (later became Bennett Blake) - found his birth cert for july 1901. No father named on the certificate but was born at home to a mother called Margaret Blake and Blake is the confirmed maiden name.
Looked on the 1901 census for the address and she is Margaret Bennett there with 3 other children and a head of the household called John Bennett.

where's the husband??

Is he with her on the 1901 census?


Have they also moved from their "home"?




I remember searching for someone a couple of years ago, the whole family changed their surname, stayed that way through a couple of censuses, then husband died and the rest of the family reverted to his name.


They'd also moved away from their home village.



I could only think that there was some sort of "hiding" going on, but no proof!!




sylvia

Does anyone have any idea why a married woman with childen would change back to her maiden name in 1900? She also added her maiden name to atleast one of her children