I am trying to clarify a family story concerning Herman/Harman/Hermon MATTHEWS. The 1911 census shows him born abt 1910, as 'nephew' to William MATTHEWS with the family living in Upton Magna. Also listed is Alfred MATTHEWS, born 1894 (actual 7:5:1893) in Manchester. The family say that Herman was fathered by Alfred - this means Alfred would have been 17; there is no knowledge of a mother. Herman was raised by William and Lizzie who would have been his grandparents (not aunt & uncle as suggested by census).
Herman went on to marry Violet Edith BLACKBURN in 1933 (his marriage certificate states William to be his father), and they had a daughter Joan born 1934. This was in Surrey/Hampshire/Wiltshire area. This checks out as we know Herman was a WW2 soldier based at Aldershot, and evacuated from Dunkirk. After the war he settled in this area.
If he was born to Alfred, he would have been recorded as 'grandson' to William (head).
If he was born to William, he would have been recorded as 'son'.
Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Nigel Mapp
Hello Michael,
Many thanks for your reply, a lot of very useful information - I will follow up your suggestions and hopefully unravel this mystery.
I had worked on the basis that 'nephew' is correct and 'Matthews' is correct, meaning Hermon would belong to William's brothers or sisters, and maybe William took him on if it was a sister who died prematurely? Doesn't explain where Alfred fits in though.
Thanks again.
Nigel
Hello Nigel
There are numerous possible complications with your family so you need to deal with them one at a time until you can come up with some facts that you can work from.
We know that Herman/Harman/Hermon MATTHEWS appears in the 1911 census living at Upton Magna apparently with his uncle and aunty.
Whilst his surname is written as MATTHEWS I can't immediately find a birth registration for him and I just wondered if he is the nephew of the wife and that the surname quoted is in error. You need to check the Upton Magna baptism register (and possibly the Shrewsbury registers) to see how he has been entered there, if indeed he was baptised locally. Unfortunately the Shropshire baptism registers available on line only go up to 1900 so you will need to pop in to Shropshire Archives in Shrewsbury to look at the baptism register.
It is perhaps quite unusual for a child to be looked after by the father's family rather than the mothers. Is there any possibility that the mother died in child birth or soon afterwards or even having another child about a year after Hermon?
The relationship of children to the head of the household on the census has to be treated with some flexibility because the relationship given will be that which they considered most 'convenient' at the time.
If Hermon was brought up by William MATTHEWS and his wife Elizabeth then it would be quite natural for Hermon to put his name down as his father when he got married regardless of whether it was correct from a genetic point of view.
Mike