#52 Ancestors: Namesake

This week's prompt at Amy Johnson Crow's #52 Ancestors is "Namesake."  That made me think right away of my maternal grandfather, Maurice Ghislain Gregoire, and his son Maurice J.

The photo above shows Maurice G. sitting on the left, and Maurice J. standing behind him.  The man standing on the right is Thomas "Tom" Mallinson, I believe, who married my grandfather's niece, Lucille "Cousin Lucy" Godissart.  Perhaps that is Tom's father sitting in front of him.  More research is needed on the Mallinsons.

Maurice G.'s birth record, obtained from the Belgian State Archives by way of a genealogy service in Antwerp, shows his first and middle names:  Maurice Henri Joseph Ghislain, on line 11.

And the English translation from the same source, on line 6:

His father, Octave, had the middle names Joseph and Ghislain also, so those names must have been important in the family, for a while anyway.  The name "Henri" also given to Maurice was probably after his grandfather, Henri Gregoire.

When Maurice G.'s son was born in 1921, he was named Maurice also, but I don't believe that he had all of those middle names.  I think he just had "Joseph,"  which I recall seeing somewhere, but have to search for it, and also request a copy of his birth certificate.

He did use the middle initial "J" as here on his registration for the military in 1942:

Fortunately for me, I knew both of these dear men.  Uncle Maurice told me that he was called "Sonny" as a child, to distinguish between the two Maurice's in the household.  Most of my grandfather's documentation show that he used the single initial "G".

It's interesting to note that Octave "presented" his newborn son to the Mayor.  From what I have learned so far, this was the custom, to actually bring the baby to the local government official as proof!  

For more stories, check out Amy John Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks at amyjohnsoncrow.com.