Doing some family history research - found a g grandfather b.1878 d.1942. - know nothing about him.
Found record of his will which states that 'This is the last will of Albert Y… otherwise known as John…, George…, Martin…,
Christopher…, Evan…’ (Have left surnames out for confidentially reasons)
My query is why would someone have 5 aliases?
He started off as Albert Y… and died as Albert Y… but why all the other names.
He wasn’t a criminal and left a tidy some of money.
Thanks.
How do you know he wasn’t a criminal mastermind? Or a secret agent? Maybe an early 007? It can’t be the norm to find 5 different names. (Were all the surnames different?)
How fascinating to find such an enigma.
Sue
Depends, how much you really want to know, I’d start by researching all of those names find out of there was any progeny, may have been an avoidance tactic, so be sure!
hmm, mysterious ancestery!
all the surnames were different - I’ve heard of criminals adopting but they seem not to revert to their original name.
Could they be nicknames?
the names used are perfectly sensible - I just can’t think of any reason why someone would use 5 other names and then revert to his original one for his death certificate. Am I missing something?
I understand serial bigamy was quite popular about that time and he might of benefited financially from bumping off the evidence.
Maybe the person who notified the death only knew him by that name
My g grandfather was a bigamist, just couldn’t afford divorce, he was a police man!
t
!afford divorce
Predictive text again
Sometimes things are best left in the past. I always think if something feels odd it usually is, and he obviously had his reason he died at 64. I quite the romantic notice he was a spy. When did the first surname start?