Liverpool & South West Lancashire FHS - Forum

Hi,
My gran was in service to a family in the late 1910s until 1928. To find out where she may have lived I did searches on the family and was perplexed by the following.
1871 census James McCririe b1854 son of John McCririe
1881 census James Hallman, wife Annie +3 children, William 4, George 3 and Thomas months old. 53 Mersey View, Widnes Annie Fruit Shopkeeper
1891 census James McCririe, wife Annie +4 children, William 14, George 13, Thomas 10 and 6year old Mabel. 70 Victoria Road, Widnes, Green Grocer
1901 census James McCririe, wife Annie +2 children Thomas 20 and Mabel 16. 30 Deacon Road, Widnes, Fruiterer and Fishmonger
1901 census William Hallman wife Emily, 70 Victoria Road, Widnes, Fruiterer
1911 census William McCririe wife Emily now pub licensees, Bear and Staff, Gateacre.
191? -1928 William McCririe wife Emily Licensees, Hunts Cross Hotel, Hunts Cross. This is where my gran was in service, met my grandfather and married in 1928
All the ages of the people correspond in each census, William on BMD when he married is William McCririe Hallman. John McCririe who was James's father came from Scotland and was down as John Allman McCririe. I don't believe it was bad transcription because if you look for Mccririe they are not there but Hallman is and vice versa.
My question is does any one have any idea why the change of surname between censuses and the change back to the original? Could it have been for tax dodging. Hallman is a Russian name could that have anything to do with it?
Thanks in advance for your help

Perplexed

I don't think it had anything to do with being a name of Russian origin, tax dodging or anything sinister, it is probably much simpler than that. When James married he gave two forenames to the Registrar...

MCCRIRIE, James Allman married THOROGOOD, Annie.
Registration district: West Derby, Lancashire
Year of registration: 1875; Dec qtr
Volume no: 8B; Page no: 873

It is obvious that (H)Allman is a family name. At census time in most cases people with more than one forename only wrote their first name instead of both onto the household census form, although both would have been preferable from a family researcher's point of view. It is possible that if Allman had been written in as well the enumerator took that as the surname and omitted McCririe.

There is also the 'problem' of literacy. It is known that many household forms entries were actually written by the eldest child in the family because he or she could write, whereas the parents were not particularly proficient. The same applies to spelling. Relatively few people with less usual names didn't have a fixed spelling for the name. It was up to the ear of the listener to write what he heard, often a phonetic variation.

It is a fact of life that name changes and variations do occur in the censuses and other public records. I would think we all have examples in our own histories. I know I have more than one!

In regard to William...
HALLMAN, William Mccririe married WAKEFIELD, Emily.
Registration district: Prescot, Lancashire
Year of registration: 1897; Jun qtr
Volume no: 8B; Page no: 1200

It could be that the names got mixed up or having two surnames he didn't know which one to use. I have my paternal g.mother's maiden name as a second forename. I don't hyphenate them but I still get mail where it is hyphenated! And to complicate things further my wife has a second forename of Thomas, her mother's maiden name!

Hi,
Thanks for the reply which pretty much coincides with my thoughts, but it is good when someone else backs them up. We have used Jackson as a second christian name since the late 1800s and each generation since, it was my great grandmothers maiden name. It is used to remember the first bearer of the name who was killed in WW1. Thanks once again for your input.

Steve