And if anyone ever runs across a George Beal who might have fathered a child with Sarah (Mallowby) Huckbody in 1843 in Gosberton, I'd be fascinated. At 12:12 AM 2/17/2014, you wrote: >I have a definite "myth vs reality" story. I think I have told this before. > >My great-great grandfather changed his name to "Richard Freeman" when >he emigrated to the United States. The family story was that now he >was a "free man" in a way he never was when he was young and poor in >England. The name he was born with was "Richard Huckbody." in 1843. >His mother Sarah Huckbody (nee Mallowby) kept the Huckbody name and >the family is peacefully in the census in the US. His daughter, >Edith Ordelia Freeman (married name Garnett) 1875-1957 told this as >the family story, which I have from older cousins who knew her, and >my father (born in 1921. >I had him recorded as the son of Nathan Huckbody/ > >The reality came up when the Lincolnshire court records came online >and I discovered that Nathan had been convicted and transported to >Australia in 1836 and the four youngest children clearly were not his. > >What was even more interesting was that the oldest son, John had been >in the Navy, jumped ship in the United States, became a Mormon, and >eventually came back to Lincolnshire and brought his mother and >almost all his siblings to the US. He also used the Freeman name >some of the time, presumably because the navy would have been looking >for him. > >I did find John (the oldest brother) in one UK census after he came >back and before they emigrated, and finding all this out allowed me >to decipher his occupation, which was given as "Mormon priest." > >Someplace I have a potential name for Richard's real father, that I >got from a descendant of the eldest brother, but I've never been able >to locate anything on that name. > > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >[email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' >without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message