Genealogy Chat

Just found out from a contact that Hannah and Mary Anne are different people. Apparently Hannah was the first wife, she died and James then married Mary Anne who had been married before. Her children are on a census listed as stepchildren. Thank you all again for your input and sorry for the confusion

try this one, looking for an ancestor who the family knew as winifred, couldn't find her anywhere on census or marriage - found a contact with her grandson through GR and found that her name is actually Emily Maria!?!?! How confusing is that ..

Thank you all for your thoughts. My main problem is that the surname is GEORGE and the area is Norfolk. The surname GEORGE was very common in Norfolk

Just to add, I was totally confused(!) by a couple where in the earliest census she is shown as the wife but with the name Ellen. I spent ages looking for this couple but couldnt find an Ellen who married the right chap. Move on a bit and I find in the next census the guy married to a girl called Harriet BUT both Harriet and Ellen come from an obscure Hampshire village - what were the chances of him living in Westminster and meeting both his first and second wife from the same village. So I sent off for the likely marriage certificate which showed his name and a Harriet. I then sent off for the sons birth cert (he had been living with the couple in the first census where apparently mum was called Ellen). Yep, mum was Harriet. To cut a long story short Ellen was in fact Harriet and when I looked back at the first census I found them as a married couple, just a few lines above in the previous household was an Ellen. I can only think that the transcriber back then had let his eyes drift and had written down the previous ladies name twice. This figures as I then realised that the husbands place of birth had been swopped for the 1 year old sons place of birth. Just a case of a tired man transcribing. Worth thinking about in your case anyway.

I think it's not so much that Ann(e) is short for Hannah, as that it's a related name. It's arguable whether these are abbreviations or different versions of the same name: Mary/Maria Emma/Emily Susan(na(h)) Where people have an interest in blending in, you get Peter for Patrick, and James for Seamus, John for Sean and so on, too. Christine

Hi I have a Hannah on birth certificate, but from then on she is Anne, marriage cert and death cert. I think it must be short for Hannah. I would think it is the same person. Ann For Joyce Hope you dont mind that i have added this to your thread Carol. My Hannah was a Beckett who married a Boyd.

Quite often a forename given on a census was the name the individual was commonly known by: this could, therefore, be their actual first name, their middle name or a diminutive. I have a relative Mignonette who became Minnie on the 1891 census!...J.

Hannah and Mary Ann is a bit of an odd combination, unless Mary Ann was the middle name. I've got one lady who comes up as Ann Maria; Maria; Annie; and Hannah at various times and on various records. Elizabeth and Eliza are common interchanges.

Are the census entries Mary Ann before, or after, the marriage of Hannah? Or both?

More likely to be different people, but you never know... give us some more details. Kate.

Hi , Carol , I have a Hannah Maria on marriage cert......Maria on censuses and on birth cert Ann Maria Lucy.... On another twig..Hannah for Ann.. Joyce

dont really know what stick you have hold of! tell me where to Find the ends - the census and the marriage ref! Jess x

We all know our ancestors swapped and switched their names with alarming regularity, but I have a Mary Anne on the census and Hannah on a marriage certificate. Could they be the same person, or have I got the wrong end of the stick.