bit of mystery

[stubby42]

Hi I recently got into geneology after we were sent a good amount of the family tree from my mums side of the family, but we've hit a bit of a mystery.



My mothers maiden name is vidler and we traced our family back to Thomas vidler who was married in 1767. Thats not the mystery just a bit of background (oh we live in England but quite a few imigrated to canada further down the line but I digress). When we started tracing back our family we got the 1830's and our grandfather (I cant be bothered to type out exactly what it is I'm not even sure if he's a grandfather) wrote his name as Frederick French vidler, but out of his 12 children not all of them put their names as French vidler. We traced our line back a little futher to discover that his father was listed as unkown and we were using Mary vidlers surname. To add to the confusion we know they were married but thats about all we know.



We thought maybe see slept with a french man and he left as one explination but I was wondering if anybody had met anything like this. I mean its very odd that we arent using the husbands name or for that matter know who he is or that only some of the line used French in their name, which was something added first to Frederick French vidler.

 

[Diane_Windsor]

My mothers maiden name is vidler and we traced our family back to Thomas vidler who was married in 1767. When we started tracing back our family we got the 1830's and our grandfather wrote his name as Frederick French vidler, but out of his 12 children not all of them put their names as French vidler. We traced our line back a little futher to discover that his father was listed as unkown and we were using Mary vidlers surname. To add to the confusion we know they were married but thats about all we know.


We thought maybe see slept with a french man and he left as one explination but I was wondering if anybody had met anything like this. I mean its very odd that we arent using the husbands name or for that matter know who he is or that only some of the line used French in their name, which was something added first to Frederick French vidler.

Is there any chance that you could be related to the French family (Lord De Freyne, of French Park)? I'm not saying that you are, but there is always the possiblity.

Diane

 

[immersedingrace]

My mothers maiden name is vidler and we traced our family back to Thomas vidler who was married in 1767. Thats not the mystery just a bit of background (oh we live in England but quite a few imigrated to canada further down the line but I digress). When we started tracing back our family we got the 1830's and our grandfather (I cant be bothered to type out exactly what it is I'm not even sure if he's a grandfather) wrote his name as Frederick French vidler, but out of his 12 children not all of them put their names as French vidler. We traced our line back a little futher to discover that his father was listed as unkown and we were using Mary vidlers surname. To add to the confusion we know they were married but thats about all we know.



We thought maybe see slept with a french man and he left as one explination but I was wondering if anybody had met anything like this. I mean its very odd that we arent using the husbands name or for that matter know who he is or that only some of the line used French in their name, which was something added first to Frederick French vidler.

There could be several explanations for this.

1. She could have married a cousin with the same last name, but somewhere along the line his name was forgotten.

2. Not knowing how many children Ms. Vidler had, it's possible to assume that her son, who you descend from, was illegitimate, thereby carrying only his mother's maiden name. That is unlikely at the time, but quite possible. Especially if her parents were deceased by the time she got pregnant. This becomes less likely if she has other children.

3. I'm sure there are other scenarios which my small brain can't comprehend them right now .

As to the use of "French", are you sure it's part of his last name (surname) and not a middle name? If not, there are several possibilities as to why it's his middle name:

1. His mother just liked that name

2. One of his parents were French and wanted to make that part of his name.

3. Some where in the genealogy some one had the surname of French which was incorporated into his name. This is the most likely scenario IMO as it seems to happen quite alot in my family tree.

4. Again, there are probably other possibilities but my brain it too small to comprehend them at the moment.

If you ARE sure that French is part of his surname, it's possible that some of his children dropped it in their names. I've had complete surnames change from one generation to the next. I've had Booher change to Booker. Chilcote change to Chilcoat, and, though not in my family, I'm sure most all familiar with Clarke vs Clark, which is simply the dropping of the "e". Not all Booker's or Chilcoat's or Clark's did this, but there is evidence to support that some did.
Blessings

 

[J21]

immersedingrace: 3. Some where in the genealogy some one had the surname of French which was incorporated into his name. This is the most likely scenario IMO as it seems to happen quite alot in my family tree.

I agree with this point. For about 5 years, I was stumped with the parentage of a 3X great Grandfather, whose middle name was Mansfield. I looked at the Mansfield areas of England but found no ties to the family. Then one day under the shower, it hit me... could it be his mother's maiden name?
I did some research and within a month had found that my 'underwater' revelation was correct! From there it just opened up so much more!
I wish I had taken that shower years ago!

 

[immersedingrace]

I wish I had taken that shower years ago!

hehehehehe.....