Genealogy Chat

Hi I am trying to find out why my GGranddad joined the Army under another name, I have seen quite a few alias's on the records ancestry have published and wonder if anyone knows why they would do it, if it was accepted practise and any suggestions why my gg would have joined under his elder brothers name he was of age himself.

It usually because they were sometimes known under a step-father's name. For example, if the mother remarried , or if they were illegitemate and the mother later married, he could have taken her married name for convenience but declared his registerd name on enlistment.

Jennifer

Thanks but thats not it, my man was born Robert Meek Carter, his elder brother who was still alive and well was Arthur Carter, Robert joined up as Arthur and on his next of kin he only put his parents and younger brother. Later he re-enlisted and was then known I think as Robert. My dad can remember him well they lived next door to each other and he can never remember him being called anything other than Robert. My guess was he was hiding from someone and could use the name Arthur as he could use papers belonging to his brother but later he must have come clean to the Army as it was changed on his paperwork.

Great thread as I have just up against a case like this in a Family I am researching. Underage men did this sometimes to avoid being bought out by their parents but this is not so in my case.