Very confused, lots of unanswered questions!

[Mydearyouareutterlywonderful]

I have been researching my family tree on and off for the last year or so. It is something I have always been very interested in but after finding my great grandmas birth certificate and discovering that her dad had an extremely rare first name, my curiosity went into overdrive.

Despite the first name being like gold-dust, he family surname is very common. I have managed to find this man in the 1881 census, along with 4 siblings and parents. His dads name was John so I have left that 'branch' of the tree for now!

One question mark I have is that I can find him on the 1881 census and the 1911 but not the 1891 or 1901.

The second question mark is on the 1911 census, there he is, married with 5 children. The eldest daughter doesn't have the same name as the rest of the family, she has her mothers maiden name. She is also older than how many ears they were married at that point. Is this more likely to be because said daughter was fathered by another man? Or was it more probable that because she was born out of wedlock between the couple, they just gave her the maiden name?

And lastly (thank you for reading this far) my nan was born out of wedlock! And she was given her fathers name. The relationship wasn't a great one and didn't last very long. I have always wondered if my great grandad went on to remarry or have anymore children who would be my mums half aunties and uncles. Despite wanting to know so badly and trying several searches, because I only have his name on my nans birth certificate, it feels like looking for a needle in a haystack. Because he disappeared after the break up, He was never really spoken about so it was difficult to gather any information.

Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Regarding the missing names on the 1891 and 1901 census have you tried every variation of spelling for the surname. For example I have the surname Hyde in my tree but lost them in 1891 eventually I found them again but with the surname as Haid. Go a little further back and even the siblings all have different spellings for their surname Hide, Hyde, Haid, Haidh etc. Often the census wasn't filled in by the families but a chap would knock on their door and ask names etc He would spell them however he felt they sounded rather than ask anyone how to spell it. Also try finding birth certificates during this time to give you an idea of where they may have been living. Use the later census to give you the place of birth of the children. If theres no luck try the passenger lists over to the USA and Canada to see if they worked there for a while.

Also only those who lived at the address would be added and not those lodging temporarily, did your family have a job which moved them around ?

The best way to find any living relatives of your nan would be to go backwards. Sounds odd but if you trace backwards and put your tree online (usual sites like Ancestry or Genesreunited) then someone with the same ancestors may also be on there and you can then trace forward.

The daughter with her mothers maiden name may have a different father or may just have been born out of wedlock. Try searching bastardy bonds to see if a father was ordered to pay towards her keep. In my tree the birth certificate of a grt grt grandmother has her mothers maiden name but once Mum remarried she then took step-dads name so no-one knew until I ordered her birth certificate (on a hunch really rather than evidence as I was at the end of every possible search line ) .

I hope that's useful. Good luck.

The eldest daughter with the mother's maiden name... how did you find out that it is the mother's maiden name?

Could the mother have been a widow who re-married and that it is not her maiden name but the name of her deceased former husband?