My Maurice Family

The Maurice One Name Study grew out of research into my own family history. Investigating records in London, I hit the brick wall familiar to many genealogists, that place where a family history thread disappears without trace. I was unable to find a birth record for my great great grandfather, Matthew MAURICE and no records at all for his father Thomas MAURICE. Knowing the name to be fairly rare, I began to collect examples of the name in London in an effort to find other information that might help me get back on the trail. Before long I had collected a large amount of data and had extended my search to the whole of the British Isles.

It was my friend Dorcas Hendershott, who maintains the RATHBONE One Name Study, who suggested I create a one name study with the results of my research. It was her guidance and enthusiasm that supported me in launching the project of a world-wide study of the MAURICE name. This study now contains information about many branches of the family other than my own.

In my own branch of the family, Matthew MAURICE's daughter Alice, my father's maternal grandmother, was the last MAURICE in my line. My uncle Derek knew her well, and she told Derek that the MAURICEs were once well-to-do with their own coat of arms and a gilded carriage. I know from other experiences in genealogy that such tales are sometimes cases of wishful thinking; but as my research continued I did indeed discover several families of MAURICEs with coats of arms, the most well-documented being the MAURICEs of Lloran whose Pedigree is documented in Burke's Landed Gentry and elsewhere. It remains to be seen whether any connection to Alice will be established.

Alice Maud MAURICE (1874-1952) pictured here, was born at Mile End in London, the third child of Matthew MAURICE (ca 1842-1900) and Caroline TAYLOR (1842-1911) . The family moved to Aston near Birmingham between 1874 and 1877. Alice's siblings were Frederick Augustus (b1869), Albert Edward (b1872), Annie Rebecca (b1877) and Harry Matthew (b1882). Sometime between 1891 and 1896 the family moved again, this time to Manchester, thus establishing Manchester as an area of concentration of the surname; and where Alice Maud married Arthur Geoffrey BARLOW in 1902.

Matthew MAURICE, Alice's father, was born about 1842 in Clerkenwell, London, according to the 1891 census, but so far no record of his birth has been found. He married Caroline TAYLOR in 1866 at St John's Westminster, London. His occupation of portmanteau maker was one he kept throughout his life. Caroline was a servant at the time of their marriage.

The only thing known of Matthew's father, Thomas MAURICE is that his occupation was a builder. Not even a death registration has been found for him.

However, my search for information about him continues as I attempt to establish Alice's ancestry and the origin of her fascinating story about the family .