Hello! I don't come on here much at all these days - just a quirk of fate that I was checking something for a family member planning a trip up to Scotland and decided to fire up my old laptop and decided to look in and see what was happening on Rootschat.
It's 18 years since my original post - I think I've got back about as far as possible, into the 1600 with Purdons.
Finding any of the Carson line and backwards was tricky, since my father lived under an assumed name (Alan Angus MacGregor) for 40+ years! He only told us kids in a 'deathbed confession' and we had no idea that his real name was John Carson. To this day, I do not know if my Mum ever knew the truth - she mentioned to my aunt, after meeting my Dad's family up in Scotland after they married while he was on leave in 1943) - "They all call him 'John' up there!" Certainly, their marriage certificate was rather apocryphal - father of the groom is listed as John MacGregor, Coal miner, the first name and occupation were right, anyway.
Apparently my father formally changed his name by deed poll, around retirement age - worried about collecting his pension I suppose. Meanwhile, it was 4 or 5 years later that the truth came out! He was gravely ill in hospital and called for my brother to come and see him and he told him the truth as he (Dad) was worried about the legality of his children's marital status - my sister and I were both married so our names were legally ok, having taken our husbands' names, but he wanted my brother to check his and his wife and son's status. My brother jokingly said at the time if Dad had been a well man he would have knocked him down - my brother and his wife had argued long and hard about naming their first son after my Dad, rather than his wife's Dad. It turned out they named him after a fictitious character!
Dad did recover and left hospital - we all laughed about the 'revelation' and no more was said. He died about a year later, and it's to my regret I didn't ever go back and ask him about the Carson family. Mind you, we did have a few Carson's - up to then we'd assumed they were sort of cousins so-many-times-removed or just close friends who were like family - imagine finding that they were actual close family blood relations!
Regards,
Stoney
