History

Summary of Research

Considerable time and effort has been spent over the years researching the history of the MADDEAUX surname.  We have obtained documents showing my great-grandfather Charles Louis Maddeaux year of birth varies in historical records - anything from 1845 to 1855 [quoting from 1881 census, 1907 death record, 1875 marriage certificate, 1880 Irish Merchant Navy record, undated Merchant Mariner Discharge Certificate, other shipping records].

His father is also identified as CharIes Louis Maddeaux (deceased - army officer) on his marriage certificate in 1875 and his country of birth is stated as France on several documents. However, this cannot be verified. 

No other documents prior to 1875 have been found verifying the existence of Charles Louis Maddeaux. Thus, running out of options in our research, we decided to take the AncestryDNA test to see what the results would reveal. To our surprise, we found out that we are related to two other individuals (one in England and the other in Australia) via the MADDOX surname. 

     Charles Louis Maddeaux

The diagram below shows the DNA link between different families to the MADDOX name. We believe that Charles Louis Maddeaux was born James Maddox on April 24th, 1845 in Deptford, England. From 1845 to 1869, there are records showing his existence. In 1869, his wife Louisa Gee died in child birth, the child and james's father James Short Maddox died in August 1869. Army records note that James Maddox deserted in 1869. From this date forward, James Maddox disappears from historical records. 

As noted above, there are currently no historical records for Charles Louis Maddeaux before 1875 when he married Alice Kate Alford. This is a 6 year period when neither James or Charles can be accounted for.  Both of them had very similar personal characteristics based upon their history. One family story which has not been verified is that the Maddeaux name was changed when a relative went to France for several years and was not changed back to the original name when the individual move back to England. No reason was given for the name change.  

The "Time Line - MADDOX-MADDEAUX" PDF file in the Reports Section outlines the historical timeline of James and Charles and the possible reason for the change of the MADDOX name to MADDEAUX.