Saturday, April 16, 2011

Surname Saturday -- Things that make you go "Hmmm?"

About a year ago my mother and father-in-law asked me to do some genealogy research on their family lines.  I was excited to do so.

I started with the paternal line of my Father-in-law..............MARVIER.  I figured it was an unsual name and would be fairly easy to trace.........more so than GREEN anyway.

This is Tony Marvier, my husbands grandfather and my Father-in-laws Dad. 

Tony was an only child, who came to America from England in 1908 with his widowed mother, Julia.  He would marry Margaret O'Connell and have 5 children; 4 sons & a daughter.  Tony died from Parkinsons in 1968.

So, armed with the knowlegde provided by my father-in-law, I started working my way backwards in time.

First bit of information I discovered came from his WW1 Draft Record on which he states his name as Vivian A. Marvier.  Ok not so unusual, we though he was Anthony Vivian...names refeversed.

Then I found his immigration records for 1908...again name is Vivian Marvier.  Perfect!

Then I find he and his mother Julia Marvieron the 1901 England census for Camberwell.  Julia is a widow and Tony is listed as Vivian Marvier.

Armed with the location information from the 1901 census, I search for a birth record in 1899 of which I do find.......
He was not born Vivian Anthony MARVIER at all...he was born Vivian Anthony DUPONT!!  There was no father listed!!

I have searched high and low for any marriage information for a Julia Dupont, both in England and in Port-Louis in the Island of Mauritius which is where Julia was from.  Nothing!

I have asked family members and no one can recall a father's name, some think perhaps the father was Edward Marvier, but again I can find no information for an Edward Marvier.

So I am left with the mystery of where on earth did the MARVIER name come from?  And WHO was Tony's father??




3 comments:

  1. Hmm ... no guarantee that anyone else from your husband's line has been tested, but he might want to do the DNA thing - it just might turn up a Marvier relative.

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  2. Well done on how far you have got so far, good luck, you never know one day you might find him..never say never x

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  3. I had the same when researching my best friend's ancestors (her uncle married my aunt, so we're somehow connected anyway). Her father was supposedly the grandson of a Margaretha and a man named Den Boef and Margaretha later married another man named Pietjouw. I found out, however, that Margaretha's surname was Den Boef & that her son with the same surname was an illegitimate child. She later married the man named Pietjouw and had additional children with his surname.

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