Just to clarify, yes, I am wondering if Giovanni may have used an alias too, and perhaps this is why he is proving so difficult to find. I am just plucking at straws here, but yes, I am wondering if Giovanni might be W.Brabant.
Not the William Brabant who was married to a 'Charlotte' but another one perhaps who married in 1904 to a Margaret or a Mary. Unfortunately, 'Marriage Locator' does not pin point an exact venue for the 1904 marriage:
http://www.marriage-locator.co.uk/cgi-bin/ML_search.cgi?year=1904&qtr=2&vol=10b&page=213&search=searchIt was also 1904 when Elizabeth was taken out by a W.Brabant. Of course, this person may not have been Giovanni. However, I don't think it would have been out of the question for him to have used an alias for whatever reason.
Possible theories ... Perhaps Giovanni wanted to seem to disappear to avoid being hounded for contributions for his children's support in the workhouse. I know from reading the 'minutes' volumes that relatives could be tracked and made to contribute if they could be found. Or perhaps he wanted to be free of Anastasia and his marital responsibilities for her. Also, it might have been a lot simpler back then to commit bigamy rather than divorce if Giovanni had fallen in love with someone else. Who knows what might have been going on. In Anastasia's death notice she is only noted as the wife of Michael Whelan and not Giovanni. It could just be that someone wanted to blot their step-father out - but it also could be that there might be something else behind this.
It could have been a slip of the pen that 'Father William a tailor' was written in Elizabeth's entry when she returned to the workhouse or perhaps this referred to baby John's Father? It is a bit ambiguous. The phrase in the entry does have a ring of present tense about it so perhaps Giovanni might still have been alive in 1912? Perhaps as a William. Perhaps as William Brabant. A Wiiliam Brabant of around Giovanni's age dies in Newcastle in 1927.
As there are hundreds of posts on this thread it certainly is easy to lose track of everything.
However, I can't help wondering if there might be clues in amongst it all that we might be missing. It does seem strange how Giovanni seems to vanish into thin air. Also puzzling is how daughter Elizabeth becomes 'Moralee'.
Oh well, hopefully more might come to light as things go on.
By the way, that is wonderful that you now have a photo of Georgina, Sophie. It is always so thrilling when a photo of an ancestor turns up!!
