Genealogy Chat

hi all,
have just recieved my grandfathers milatary history record and it does make a good read.it seems he was of good character,smart,sober and had been a POW for 4yrs etc,etc however what puzzels me is it says he was 18yrs when he signed up for milatary service dob 1901and that his mother was called Amy, (gives an address the same as when he married first wife so i know i have right man) nothing odd there i hear you say only i have his birth cert saying dob 1903 same day and month now i know he could of cheated the 2 yrs being only 16 when he signed up many did but would he change his mothers name as i have it as harriet!
harriet married a george(i have cert) my grandfather was born (have cert) and also one of his bothers i have cert with same parents so why say his mother was called amy ( harriet does not have a middle name of amy).
is the name harriet somehow interchangable with harriet ????
or have i gone down the wrong track here???
what do you think?
bit cofused this morning knew i should not of stayed in bed the extra hour!!
any thoughts appreciated
thank you
elaine

I'd say if you are sure the address on the army records is the same as the one he married from then you have the right army records and perhaps it was the army that got his mother's name wrong. There's always scope for human error when things are written down by a third party. Perhaps his mother was just known as Amy even though it wasn't her name. I know lots of people who are known by a name they just happen to like.

I wouldn't worry about his age being wrong. My own father told the army he was born in 1907 when he was in fact born 1908.

Kath. x

hi kath,
thanks for your thoughts my gut feeling tells me he lied abt his age as i have not found another birth and as i said the day and month are the same and on his milatary record it gives his brothers name as a witness on his marriage and i have his birth cert giving the same parents,so i suppose the army could of mistakenly written it down wrong however it is written at different times throughtout his army life so perhaps my gt grannie harriet did prefer the name amy,guess i will never know !
thanks for your help
elaine

I would suspect that his mother forbade him to sign up so he not only lied about his age but also lied about his mother's name so they couldn't find her.
Do you have his parents on the 1901 census? I wonder if they're at the same address and what the mother's name is there.
Margaret

hi margaret,
i do have them on the 1901 census his parents were living together and she was called harriet no children i am thinking my grandfather was the eldest born in 1903 i know one of his brothers was born in 1904 and she went on to have at least another 2 sons.
never even thought that mother would not approve it does seem very possible this is what happened.
thanks for that
elaine