Genealogy Wise

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Hi guys,

I'm brand new on here but I'm hoping by posting this genealogical mystery on a large website like this I might get some theories that might help solve the problem! It's a bit long winded but please stick with it, I need to explain it fully so you can see I have tried to work this out :)

One of my branches is unfortunately Smith and somehow I managed to get back as far as my great-great grandfather James Smith. James Smith was born in 1868 in Worsbrough (nr Barnsley), West Riding of Yorkshire, UK. His parents on the birth certificate are Jeremiah Smith and Mary Jenkinson. I also have Jeremiah Smith and Mary Jenkinson's marriage certificate from 1865, also in Worsbrough, and Jeremiah's father is listed as Joseph Smith.

Armed with all this I tried to find this family in the census records, first of all the 1881 as thats freely available. Could I find any Jeremiah Smith's in that area? Could I even find a James Smith of the right age in that village? Nope.... and given that I knew my great-grandfather and my grandmother had been born in the same village it was unlikely they had moved anywhere.

Then my Mum remembered a strange family story that my great-grandfather had been nicknamed 'Stiffy Baxter' and suggested we substitute Smith for Baxter. No Jeremiah Baxter, but there was a James Baxter in the village with parents Joseph and Mary Baxter. Mary Baxter was the right age, as was James. I did notice there was a gap between the last few children and the older children and therefore summerised that Jeremiah had died and Mary had remarried a Joseph Baxter.

Looking at the parish baptisms for the village however, we hit a problem. Try as we might we could not find any Baxter baptisms for the period we wanted. What we *did* find were a number of Smith baptisms to a Jeremiah and Mary, for children of the same names and ages as the Baxter brood in 1881, and even more surprisingly some were after 1881!

Somewhat perplexed we went on to do some census searches. We could never find any Smith families that ever fit the bill. However in 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901 we consistently found this Baxter family with the suspicious same named & aged children. As if that wasn't enough in 1871 the Baxter children had two elder children, Jemima and Frank who were both born before Jeremiah and Mary's marriage, but research in 1861 census and parish records show that Mary had two illegitimate children, named Jemima and Frank......

In 1881, 1891 and 1901 the head of the family is Joseph Baxter who is from Lancashire although it's never clear where in Lancashire and on one census the emumerator gives up and puts NK. In 1871 the head of the household is James Baxter, also from Lancashire.

As if that wasn't enough, Mary's father on her marriage certificate is given as Francis Fitton. In 1861 in Worsbrough there is only one Francis Fitton living with his wife Sarah. Their lodger, is a Joseph Baxter from Lancashire who is the same age as the Joseph/James Baxter who seems to appear with their daughter Mary in following census returns.

So my questions are, given all the evidence, are Joseph/James Baxter and Jeremiah Smith one and the same? If so, why does he appear to use one name for registering births & marriages and in the parish records but another name in census returns? Is he hiding something? Why change both his first name and his surname? I've heard of people using a different first name before but not an entirely different name!

Apologies if I have put this on the wrong forum but I'd appreciate comments from all over the world about this curious situation. I've never met anyone else with this problem before but I can't be the only one!

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Fascinating piece of detective work! How lucky you are to have a mother with an excellent recall of family ancecdotes! Maybe because the parish priest knew the family it wasn't prudent to baptise the children under a false name. When it came to the government census, maybe Jeremiah/Joseph felt entitled to give his alias to the enumerator. Evidently, from what you say, Jeremiah and Mary SMITH existed as a couple continuously until after 1881, so this wouldn't indicate a second marriage. If any of the children died young then that would explain the gap in the ages of the living children in 1881.

You seem to have good circumstantial evidence to say that your ancestors also used the surname BAXTER, but it would be nice to find that piece of 'killer evidence', wouldn't it!!
The detective work took some years and I have to admit some people reckon I'm clutching at straws, despite all the evidence I've accumulated.

The funny thing is he *could* have lied to the parish priest from the off if he had chosen to do so. He wasn't local, he was clearly using the alias at least 4 years before he was married. Instead he chose not to and only did it for the enumerator.

The biggest problem this poses is that I can't trace my Smith line back beyond Jeremiah's first appearance as Joseph Baxter in 1861. I think I have possibly found him in 1841 census but it's very flimsy and without a good trawl of the parish records in the Leigh area of Lancashire I can't prove/disprove my guess.
Hello Sarah, what a wonderful story. This is what Geneology is all about. We all long for the skeletons, blacksheep and aunties affair with the milkman. Keep up the good work and I hope you find your elusive evidence.
Hello Sarah,

Excellent detective work! And I thought my grandmother was bad... she appears on every census record with a different first name. At least so far I think she was consistent with her last name. I appreciate the dedication to task.

I agree with Sean about not lying to the priest. Even if your gg-grandfather was using an alias prior to moving to the area, it seems possible to me that either his wife or her family wasn't willing to take it so far as to lie to a priest.

On the flip side, if I were to play devil's advocate, I would suggest that perhaps Baxter was his real name, and Smith was the alias.

Please, keep us updated on what you find!

-Kathleen

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