h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

During ww1 my fathers' regiment was stationed on Salisbury plain prior to being sent to France. Before they could be shipped out a terrible 'flu epidemic swept the camp amd my father was very ill. He was sent to a civilian hospital and was there so long that when he came out his regiment had been sent to France and he found he had been posted as a deserter. The punishment for that was death. He borrowed his sister's boyfriends' birth certificate and joined the navy under another name.He came out of the navy and married my mother under his new name. They parted just afterI was born. I grew up with foster parents and was told my mother was dead. When I was fifteen I discovered that she was not dead. I found her and she told me about the name change. So my grandparents uncles and their families all had a different surname to me because of a flu epidemic and a borrowed birth certificate.!