In the course of researching my Worsnop family in Halifax I've come across one of those odd cases where a man was enumerated twice in a census in places 200 miles apart! These instances are not exactly unknown but this one is interesting because the 1901 census has him in Halifax and also in London. Thomas H WORSNOP (his middle name was Herbert), single, 35, a master mariner, born Halifax 1865, appears in Savile Terrace, Halifax, with his parents Charles P and Susanna Worsnop. However, the same census puts him in London at the Gower Hotel, Euston Road, St Pancras. There is no doubt it was the same man because all details are identical, i.e. forenames and surname, age, occupation, marital condition, date and place of birth, etc. Interestingly, Thomas gave the Gower Hotel as his address on the marriage certificate when he married an older woman, Annie Turner, a widow, at St Pancras in 1906. It sounds as if it was his regular London bolt-hole. If there is anyone at all - especially on the Halifax list - who is researching this particular WORSNOP family I've love to hear from you because they have been driving me nuts for years!!! They descend from a Charles Henry Porter Worsnop who was born about 1839/40 at Kirbymoorside, according to most of the censuses. He married Susanna Ruth LISTER of Shelf at st John's Parish Church, Halifax, in Dec 1860. They both lived to a ripe old age and had 11 children according to the 1911 census, 8 of them then still living. The Worsnops were probably well known in Halifax because Charles was an acetate lamp manufacturer at Cheapside Halifax and one of his sons had a toy dealing business nearby. One of the sons, John Edgar Worsnop, 18, was killed in a disastrous explosion at one of the works in 1890, of which I have newspaper reports. In most censuses they were in the posh Savile Park area, so presumably were not short of a bob or two. Charles Porter Worsnop, the father of the family, is one of those enigmas that drive family historians bonkers because I've spent years trying to find out who he was! He appears in the 1841 census as Charles Porter, aged 2, living with my gt-gt-grandparents Thomas Worsnop, a policeman, and Jane Worsnop at Scarborough (no relationship given, of course). In 1851 he has become Thomas & Jane's grandson, his marriage certificate calls him Charles Henry Porter but no father is shown, however an announcement in the Scarborough Mercury (almost certainly inserted by Thomas) calls him Charles Porter Worsnop. I won't bore you with all the details but some of their children were registered at birth as Worsnop, some as Porter and some as Worsnop-Porter. When Thomas Worsnop sr died in 1872 he made Charles Porter Worsnop his executor and in his will Thomas revealed that his real name was John Henry Porter and he was Thomas's adopted son. They were obviously close because Charles P Worsnop paid for Thomas's grave in Scarborough Cemetery. As I say, I've spent some years trying to discover who Charles Porter Worsnop was. The best lead I've got is a parish register entry from Kirkdale, near Kirbymoorside, of the birth of a John Henry Porter to an unmarried woman, Jane Porter, in 1839. There was a single woman called Jane Porter in the 1841 census of Scarborough living not far from Thomas Worsnop, but I lose her after that. I can't help wondering if Thomas the police officer met Jane on his beat and had a bit of a ding-dong, which could make him the actual father of Charles Porter Worsnop but I'll never prove it. The whole family history of this particular Worsnop clan is so convoluted that it hardly came as a surprise to find that one of them was enumerated twice in places 200 miles apart in 1901! -- Roy Stockdill Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Famous family trees blog: http://blog.findmypast.co.uk/tag/roy-stockdill/ "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE

Hi Roy There are four certificates of competence in the latest release on Ancestry for Thomas Herbert WORSNOP Great Britain, Masters and Mates Certificates, 1850-1927 1885 2nd mate 1887 1st mate 1888 also 1st mate 1889 Master Usually there are some more details of the ships he served on, on the reverse of the certificates Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) On 12/09/2012 18:12, roy.stockdill@btinternet.com wrote: > In the course of researching my Worsnop family in Halifax I've come across one of those odd > cases where a man was enumerated twice in a census in places 200 miles apart! These > instances are not exactly unknown but this one is interesting because the 1901 census has > him in Halifax and also in London. > > Thomas H WORSNOP (his middle name was Herbert), single, 35, a master mariner, born > Halifax 1865, appears in Savile Terrace, Halifax, with his parents Charles P and Susanna > Worsnop. However, the same census puts him in London at the Gower Hotel, Euston Road, > St Pancras. There is no doubt it was the same man because all details are identical, i.e. > forenames and surname, age, occupation, marital condition, date and place of birth, etc.