Severus / character, place names

[Geoff]

No: HPFGUIDX 190158

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at ...> wrote:

June:
> > Maybe she didn't forget that Lily's maiden name was Evans. Maybe
> > she gave the name to Mark Evans because she wanted to give us
> > something to think about. Did anyone else think there may have
> > been a connection there? I actually have a friend named Mark Evans
> > and I tease him about being beat up by Dudley Dursley, lol.
 
Pippin:
> Oh, there was loads of speculation back in the day. IIRC, JKR said in her explanation that she should have realized the appearance of Sirius Black as a casual mention early on would prime us to expect something similar to happen again. That's exactly what happened and we were all proud of ourselves for spotting this no doubt significant clue. 
> 
>  JKR probably thought she was safe in choosing "Evans"  because  she'd established that Harry couldn't possibly have any other living relatives besides the Dursleys. Dumbledore would only have left Harry with them as a last resort. 

Geoff:
I remember getting very cross when she revealed that because I wrote a long 
post pointing out that Harry could have relatives because there could be very 
distant ones of whom Dumbledore knew nothing.

I can cite an instance in my own family. When I was 17, I suddenly discovered 
that I had an aunt and five cousins because my father had been estranged 
from his family before WW2, had said nothing to my mother and then, out of
the  blued, a letter arrived form his sister in York; she had been trying to trace
him through Army records. Again, my younger son was tracing family records
a few years ago and found another Bannister quite close to us where the family
line had diverged in the 1800s. I cited other examples in my post.

If anyone wants to my (failed) degree thesis the post is 85255 "The Whole Evans 
Theory". I was in my best professorial mode and then JKR torpedoed it.....
:-(

<sob>