Hello All, This is my first posting to this list: It would be an excellent Christmas present if anyone could give me any ideas on how to proceed with our worst family history problem!! Here it is: My husband's grandfather was John Hamilton. He always said that he was born in "Cork" but we don't know if this was the City or just the County. When he was in the British merchant navy he gave his date of birth as 29th April 1895. Other records (1st World War British Army and Marriage Certificate) suggest 1894 and 1896. We have not been able to find a birth registration that fits. In 1918 John visited his Catholic family, in Cork, to "try to make them see sense" as they were unhappy that he was going to marry a Protestant. He wrote a letter to his fiancee describing how they had refused to listen. The address at the top of his letter just says "Cork", but I would imagine this means Cork City. His father must have been alive at this date as he describes him in the letter as "a hard-headed Scotchman" (sic), so we think his father was probably born in Scotland. Following this "fall-out" with his family, when he married in Southampton in 1920, he did not give his father's name to the registrar! When his daughter's birth was registered in 1921 and when John Hamilton's death was registered in 1962, his name was given to the registrar by his wife/widow. On both occasions she gave a middle name, "Claude". We have not found any record of this middle name being used by John himself and so I wondered if it was his much-hated father's name? Family legend says John had two sisters, but no brothers were ever mentioned. The sisters were Eileen (Aileen?) and Kathleen. Another legend says the sisters both emigrated to Canada, but we don't know whether they were married or not. If anyone has any ideas then please don't hold them back! If anyone has any County Cork census pages hiding in a drawer then please have a quick look to see if they have any "Hamiltons" on them. Stranger things have happened! Regards and a very merry Christmas to you all! Sarah Montgomery