Well, I really did sort of know it before; but my great-grandfather (MFF) James Berry turns up on the 1921 as James Berry Walton.
1881 - still with wife Emma, son Walter, and daughter Maggie in Sutton-in-Craven, Yorks.
1891 - with teenage Walter a short walk up the road in Sutton Mill while Emma and Maggie have decamped to Main Street, Sutton-in-Craven
1901 - with Mary Walton born Cross Hills (a few steps from Sutton) who will remain with him until his death; they have removed to Southport, Lancs. and she is head of household while he is said to be Jane Berry, female boarder
1911 - Mary and James are now in Onchan just outside Douglas, IOM; she fills out the census form listing a “James Walton” a retired head of household as her husband, followed by James Berry (mistranscribed by Ancestry as Beng) as boarder
I had long suspected that James Walton was made up and that this fictional head of household was an alter ego for James Berry. I can’t say I’m the least bit surprised therefore to find “James Berry Walton” as head of household in 1921 with Mary Walton said to be his wife. She did indeed collapse the two into one, it would seem.
Maybe not exactly what you had in mind, Phoenix, when you asked what I feel I should have known already! It's sad the hoops they had to jump through.
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