Anne, your family sounds a bit like mine! And the lesson is - don't believe all you see. Grandma's sister nee BERNHARDT married COCKHILL de facto CLARK had all her children registered as Cockhill and she died as Cockhill. The children seemed to grow up with Mr Clark as quite young children, the youngest who died lagged four was only two when Lizzy, Mum, died in childgirth. Georgie, the only truly Cockhill one of the lot, was known by the family and himself (I met him!) as illegitimate - well it was the others who were, not George. They married mostly as Clark too when the time came, though they found out sometime as the entry as Cockhill is added to the typewritten records in hand writing at the bottom of the relevant page, NOT alpha order - obviously added later! But they were Clark for all intents and purposes.. and remain so. 1911 census they were Mr and Mrs Clark with several children, married long enough to have them all! But Georgie was with his Cockhill father, his de facto, and new baby, as son - and I presume may have stayed there till Dad dies 1912. There is of course no marriage to Mr Clark - or for Mr Cockhill to his new partner either. Took some finding, that bit of the family, did. To make it all worse, Lizzie's dad. My g grandfather, was officially John Henry Thomas BERNHARDT. He was Henry in the family and my ken, but used ?Harry, John, John H T etc - in all of his seven marriages. Bigamous - no divorces, no deaths.. I have met on line some half second cousins and even a half first cousin once removed! And lest people say anything, like how do I know - I got the marriage certs with his signature on them in several - not all, I admit - cases from the actual local registry offices where in some cases he actually married.. and his father and gg grandfather's occupation has not chanced and Fred died at the right time etc. the only thing "wrong" is, Henry got 20 years younger over his life and marriages! He died with wife number four by the way. He seems to have kept returning to her throughout his many marriages. G Gran whom I descend from was wife 1 and she stuck it for seven births and six living children. Henry was older than his real age when he married her - said he was adult but was not by about a year. And most of the brides including g gran were - well let us say they had remarkably short first pregnancies. That is all Mum's side - I have a convicted bigamous gg grandfather on Dad's side too! And a just possible murder or two there by gg grandfather's brother. They were here, I have court cases and newspaper reports from 1860s. BERNHARDT were in England between 1880 and 1920, his marriages. So far, of course. You would be surprised how BERNHARDT can be transcribed and written. I am not totally convinced I have them all, his marriages. He was born 1860 and died 1942. Henry himself was born a month after his parents married - but Mum was a widow, and her first hubby died only a few weeks or months earlier - HE was possibly Henry's father - or Fred BERNAHRDT - or the mi8lkman I suppose. Fred did not leave anything to Henry in his =will, and Henry was his only child.. left it all to his niece from wife's first husband going by surnames. Not that there was much to leave. And Fred himself was left on a doorstep in Germany as a baby. So no clues on his parentage though there is a persistent rumour in all branches, that we are related to Sarah - but no one knows how! I think Henry was a real smoothie charmer who lied through his teeth when it suited - till proven, I take that with a liberal pinch of salt. Dawn (Melbourne Australia) -----Original Message----- From: staffordshire-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:staffordshire-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Anne Capewell Sent: Tuesday, 20 November 2012 12:55 AM To: staffordshire@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [STAFFORDSHIRE] The Taylor saga Just one thought. My ggrandfather was illegitimate (which I am not suggesting was the case here but bear with me). __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 7709 (20121119) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com

Crikey Dawn - you did well there! Fancy trying to sort my lot out <g>? > From: dawnwebb@optusnet.com.au > To: staffordshire@rootsweb.com > Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2012 07:45:18 +1100 > Subject: Re: [STAFFORDSHIRE] The Taylor saga > > Anne, your family sounds a bit like mine! And the lesson is - don't believe > all you see.

NO!!! I found an old email from a second cousin, now dead, fin which she said what her gran remembered and she THOUGHT her sister, Lizzie, was a Mrs Clark, and she was! Until then, it had taken me years of searching about - there is a postcard from her in my Grandma's stuff obviously sent in WWI and referring to the birth of my now dec uncle Jim, and it was of a place in the US - so I searched for that.. but now she was just up the road by a couple of miles from where she used to live with Mr Cockhill in downtown Huddersfield. Lizzie was said to be .. well, Grandma, a real lady, said there was always a cock somewhere around with Lizzie! Family joke apparently! Peacock, Hencock, Cockhill were names mentioned but some were the husbands of the other sisters... With Henry as a Dad, and Lizzie herself being that short first pregnancy of her parents, well.. hereditary makes one wonder. At least Lizzie did not MARR?Y her guy and there was no divorce as a legal option like there is now. Not affordable for the normal person, anyway. De facto was the realistic option in such cases I think. Dawn (who herself is divorced!) -----Original Message----- From: staffordshire-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:staffordshire-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Anne Capewell Sent: Wednesday, 21 November 2012 5:26 AM To: staffordshire@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [STAFFORDSHIRE] The Taylor saga Crikey Dawn - you did well there! Fancy trying to sort my lot out <g>? __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 7712 (20121120) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com