Nicknames might be one of the most difficult snippets of information to discover about our ancestors, especially is there is no one left alive to tell us about them.
My father's second eldest brother Ernest was known to all as Squib. Long before this nickname described someone born to wizard parents lacking magical abilities (Harry Potter), a squib was a type of firecracker, or a person who is scared to take a risk or backs out of a challenge. I'm not sure how Ernest gained the nickname Squib - Dad would never tell me, and as he was 16 years younger may not actually have known himself - but I never heard any of the siblings refer to their brother by any other name, and only learned his actual name when I began my family history research.
Dad himself was nicknamed 'Bluey' by his siblings, because of his bright red hair as a child. As dad was mostly bald and what hair he had was grey when I was a child, the knowledge that he had red hair came as quite a surprise when I overheard one of my aunts use the nickname.
While perhaps not quite a nickname, one of dad's sisters, Muriel Phyllis Argent Green was always known by her second name, Phyllis. It was several years into my family history research that I learned her real first name was Muriel.
On my mother's side, several of my great aunts were known by nicknames, or truncated versions of their real names. Priscilla was known as Illa, Elizabeth as Peggy and Thelma as Lalla. Also on my maternal side, I noted in this week's Trove Tuesday post that my German ancestor, Carl Friedrich Beseler, was known in Australia as Frederick Beseler.
While most official records used their correct names, other sources did not, so knowing the name people were commonly known by can be essential to finding all the available information about them you can.
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