A Eureka Moment!
I'm sure I'm not the only one who has puzzled in my family history research over certain individuals who seem to appear from nowhere: - death or marriage records for individuals for whom there appears to be no corresponding earlier census or birth records. Sometimes it may be that they were out of the country, sometimes they previously used a different given name or put the names in a different order, but more often than not it transpires that they previously used a different surname. Finding the original surname sometimes requires quite a bit of detective work, and just recently that detective work paid off in grand style! I was delighted to make a breakthrough in my CLOSE one-name study researches when I discovered that a whole batch of unidentified 20th century CLOSEs were previously known as KLOSZ. Several KLOSZ brothers came to London in the early 19th century from Prussia, and established bakery and grocery businesses. Another branch ran a drapery business in the M