Hiram aka Samuel Sterry b 1857, Longhope (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Wednesday, January 28, 2015, 13:45 (3588 days ago) @ rsterry

"I have no idea why he suddenly decided to call himself Samuel rather than Hiram - especially as he had a brother called Samuel."

Hi Robert, thanks for clarifying things re the Census, even tho' and as usual it's ruined yet another of my conspiracy theories, I really should get my over-active imagination seen to !.

Re Samuel changing his name, maybe this is something to do with the water in Hope Brook ? ;-)
Whereas the Longhope Sterrys seemed to favour Samuel as their traditional "family" name, my Longhope Wrights favoured Leonard. This MAY be the reason that my Great Uncle "suddenly" called himself Harry LEONARD Wright at the 1911 Census; yet in all Records before and after thro Army, Marriage and Death etc he was just plain Harry ? We've tried to work out why but can see no obvious reason at all, his father Leonard lived another 24 years afterwards for example, so ??.

Wrt the tradional/family name Samuel, I'm sure you (as well as me) have seen cases where more than one son in a household are formally given that family name as their first Christian name, but they are henceforth referred to by their (differing) second names, presumably to avoid confusion within the household group. It would seem reasonable in such a case for your Samuel to re-adopt that name later in life when away from his siblings, especially as the Hiram name seems to have caused spelling problems. However in your case it appears to me that he was only ever Baptised/named/Christened as Hiram, not Samuel Hiram, so ???

There's nowt so strange as folk !

Thanks again, Jeff