Genealogy Chat

Lou.what area did he come from?

Cat, don't know if its relevant to you but we had a middle name BOYCE in my husband's family. Turned out to be BOYES and was the maiden name of the mother. The funny thing is she had several children by different men and all were baptised with the father's name as middle name and BOYES as surname. Later she married one of the fathers and the child changed his name round to have BOYES as middle name. They were from New Malton by the way. Anne

Hi Merry Their son registered the death. Lou

Who actually registered the death?? My grandfather had 14 children. All those I was able to speak to (9) told me their dad's middle name was Samuel, after his father. In fact his middle name was Charles, after his grandfather! Merry

Hi Dawn Another interesting suggestion, thanks. In later life, Ernest worked on the railways so maybe it was a nickname given to him by colleagues Lou

ok lou another theory Boyce was his nickname and son thought it was his second name. Hubby always thought his granddad was Andrew but that was his second name not as exciting as Boyce though

Hi Lisa Great suggestion and I'll certainly give it a try. I've not found them all that helpful in the past but I may just have caught them on a bad day or got a particularly unhelpful person! Lou

Hi Dawn Not stupid at all but no, unfortunately there doesn't appear to be a Boyce in the family at all. Ernest's line was actually the first I embarked on when I started this obsession 6yrs ago so am verified back to 1755 and so far, not a sniff of a Boyce anywhere. Florence's line has been more tricky, I'm stuck on her grandparents and have been for a long while. Can't see him having taken a name from his wife's ancestors but stranger things have happened so that might turn out to be an explanation if I can ever get past their marriage! Lou

Lou, we're from Canada and I remember on a trip back home, walking through all of the cemeteries. I can't tell you how many stones didn't include all of the details! Actually, I think every stone we saw was incomplete!! Does your cemetery have an office that you can contact? We were very lucky -- all of our questions were answered by very helpful staff (5 cemeteries). Perhaps if you give them Florence's info, they can give you who is buried with her. Best of luck!

This is going to be a really stupid reply because I'm sure you have thought of it but was it his mothers name.

Hi Yvonne Brilliant, I like it! Their son informed the death so I assume from that, that he had always thought his father's middle name was Boyce although I'm still baffled as to why! Lou

Hi Lisa Ernest's death is proving something of a problem. I can't find one! I've located Florence's grave in the local cemetery this afternoon (such a buzz!) but there's only her name on the headstone so either Ernest wasn't buried with her or the family just didn't have his details added to the stone Lou

Lou, perhaps it is a mistake, but..... My father-in-law hated his middle name and refused to use it (Lafayette).....Don't know why it wouldn't be on Ernest's birth certificate, but he could have intentionally not included it on the other certificates? Do you have access to the cemetery records? I wrote to a cemetery in Canada, and they not only sent information I was asking for, they also included all of the information they had for my family. Perhaps his name would be on his cemetery records?

...for someone to adopt a middle name late in life? I've just received my great grandmother's death cert (June 1935) and she is stated as the wife of Ernest BOYCE Hawkridge. I have Ernest's birth cert, marriage cert, the certs for the births/marriages of 3 of their children, their eldest son's death cert and Ernest's WW1 Attenstation Papers and not once is Boyce used in his name. Why would someone suddenly start to use a name that has no connection to the family? Lou