Richard Ellis -- b. ~1829 Ireland/d. 5 Jun 1896, Peru, IL

William Farrell_1

Hello,

I'll try to be clear as this is a confusing story. My wife's gr-gr grandfather, Richard Ellis, came to the US sometime in the 1850s, most likely from Ireland. According to his wife Mary (nee Bell)'s obituary (attached), they were married in Philadelphia, PA, likely in the 1850s. Richard and family are next found in the 1860 US Federal Census living in Peru, Illinois, where they remained until Richard's death in 1896.

I have no information on Richard's parents, siblings and, to complicate things further, there's family folklore that Richard's last name is not Ellis but O'Lett is not his last name. Ellis was his mother's maiden name, according to the story. He may have changed his name due to trouble in the home country or with Great Britain.

How do I go about establishing Richard's background when he may have deliberately changed his identity?

thanks for any help,

Obituary_Mary Ellis_nee_Bell_Fairbury (IL) Blade_2 Sep 1921.jpg

Graham Buckell

Personally I think you will struggle with this one. Ellis is a common name and that might not even be right! You think he came from Ireland but are not sure. Not sure how common the name O'Lett is.

I suggest that you repost this to the Ireland group where at least you should get a useful comment on the O'Lett name.

https://community.familysearch.org/en/group/104-ireland-research

Áine Ní Donnghaile

Lett (the base) is an uncommon name, based primarily in and around County Wexford. https://www.johngrenham.com/findasurname.php?surname=Lett

If they were Roman Catholic, Philadelphia RC marriages are available on FindMyPast.com, but I don't see anything with variations of those names about that time.

Shannon Potter Wilcox

@anthonyphilipclarke1 @Hayter David Do you have any ideas?

Hayter David

I think it will be very difficult as there is uncertainty as to which name is the correct one . But if you don't try ......