Here is one of these "difficult" occasions: A sailor named Mulvenny, supposed pressganged and eventually ending up at Ferryden, Angus, decides to stay. Simon Mulvenny of Montrose and Jean Anderson of Craig parish are married in 1799. He appears as "Nichol alias Mulvenny" in 1808 and 1817, but by the 1841 census he appears as Simon Nicol. His first child is baptised under Nicol in 1800, his second under Nichol and third under Nicol. So he changed his name from Mulvenny to Nicol/Nichol shortly after marriage (possibly to avoid being found again by the pressgang), but officials still include the "alias Mulvenny" in registers for some time afterwards. Genealogical software doesn't appear to be able to cope with such name changes and variants, so we have to do what we can within these limitations. Gordon Johnson.