Genealogy Chat

My direct ancestor James Hitchcock (his birth name) was born in Thetford in 1835.
He married in Kent in 1856 in the name of James Cox.
In 1865 he was convicted of bigamy at the old Baily and sentenced to 3 months and used his birth name Hitchcock during this time.
So i wonder why he changed his name on leaving Norfolk- or when he reached Kent ( I can only think he did something wrong ?)
Why did he resume his birth name in relation to his second marriage ( he continued to live with his second "wife" under birth name of Hitchcock and the bigamy trial was in this name)
Any ideas on how i might clear up the mystery - would love to know what my 'black sheep' did !)
Alice

Is this definitely the same person?
Did he marry aged 15 ?

Gwyn

Hi Gyn
Yes - I could not find him on the cencus then someone on here suggested bigamy - and then I looked on the old bailey site - it all fitted in - I made a mistake with his birth date - sorry - i will bring up the old details from the post on records office I think - amaazing luck to find him like that but i am sure I have right one!
Alice

I have brought up thread on this board about help needed to find James Cox
Alice

Have you looked on.....blacksmiths of norfolk...website.
Dont know if it will help,but does mention who he worked for.
Regards Kay

Thank you
I wonder if perhaps he had previously married under the name of Hitchcock and then decided to to change his name before marrying again. Cannot find obvious marriage though !

Alice,

What a coincidence! I was helping someone last night and it looks rather like your scenario.

I wonder if the marriage was removed from the registers because it was bigamous? The Old Bailey records helped narrow down the date but there was nothing. Perhaps you could try the local register offices in case it never made it to the GRO.

Rose

I have an ancestor born Weaver, he changed his name to White in order to re-enlist in the army, having previously deserted and wanted to get back in. He used the name White. When he married (for the first time aged 36????) he called himself White Weaver and used this name almost to the grave. His first child was registered as Nellie White Weaver, but the others were registered just as Weaver.

He is still causing me problems as I cannot find him under either name in 1881 or 1891.

Margaret

Alice

A year or so ago I was helping someone here on GR find their family.

I found the male and traced him from child through marriage, then nothing


then I found a second family with all the right forenames and birth places etc but the wrong surname, living in another village. They were on 2 or 3 censuses

then I found the wife and some of the children under the first surname on the next census.


It seems that the man changed the surname of the whole family soon after the first child was born, and they moved to another place. After HE died, the familt went back to the original name



I didn't take it any further, left it upto the family member on here to do any further digging. But the assumption was that he wanted to hide himself.


Thing was, they told the truth about everything else on the census so it was easy to trace them after I clicked on the fact that the two families were in fact the same family.



sylvia