Over the last month or so, many readers have written to us at FWL asking for more of our ‘crazy finds‘…. so today, we thought we would share some ludicrously named individuals we have tracked down in our research. For those who aren’t aware of the publication Potty, Fartwell and Knob, it’s a “must have” for dinner party humour! None of the entries below are, to our knowledge, included in the book, although there is no index so we wouldn’t like to absolutely 100% say they aren’t….
Firstly, we have to share some Humiliation with you …. Yes, there are people who have lived on this planet whose given name has been Humiliation. One married William Wortley in Weybridge St James in 1768:
Source image: Ancestry.co.uk – Surrey, England, Marriages, 1754-1937
As if that wasn’t bad enough, William and Humiliation Wortley named one of their children, Humiliation, as well! Surely, having been inflicted with the name herself, her mother would have had more sense than to pass on the infliction to her daughter. Doh! A further Humiliation – this time, Cook – died in Ipswich in June quarter 1848.
Would you believe it….? There are actually people named Fart! Go on, tell me how this child travelling from New York into Liverpool in 1903 isn’t called Fart May Bee:
Source image: Ancestry.co.uk – UK Incoming Passenger Lists, 1903
There are many mis-transcribed Farts…. too many to mention, in fact. Quite frankly though, I have never seen quite such an extraordinary record of death as this:
Were there actually two male children with the surname of Yolland, both registered on the same death certificate? Surely not. Actually, no wait…. anything is possible! We might just have to order that to find out! Numbers often feature in name registrations but Forty Susan I Holden‘s marriage is slightly unusual in 1887 in St George Hanover Square Registration District, with no associated birth, but she died in 1896 aged 38 – where did the Forty come from?
The amount of humorous material in the archives is vast. Maybe we might share some more over the next week or two – it certainly seems to make for popular reading!
