12 March 2024 Finding hiding ancestors

Having researched so many instances of apparent identity changes there seems to be something of a pattern to the order and extent of changes of name which may well influence how you might look for a lost ancestor. People do not tend to change their forename as often as they change their surname. This may be because they fear they may fail to react to the new name in a work or social situation and this might be either dangerous if a runaway horse is headed in their direction or give rise to suspicions if it keeps happening. Secondly, they tend to keep to the day and month on which they were born and change the year. I suppose it is simpler to remember the date that way.