Genealogy Chat

I think family history will become more and more difficult as time goes on and more and more families are not "conventional" families.

Kath. x

It happens quite often and I suspect will happen a lot more in the future!!

Thanks to everyone for the information on registration. It seems wrong that a child who thinks that the surname he has, must be his fathers name and then to find out just turned 40, and discover that this is not the case and is left wondering who is his father was!

That happened to me up until i was 17/18 yrs old.

If you're talking about historical records, then until recently a birth certificate didn't give the surname for the child at all. Have a look at any historical certificates that you have and you'll see that under child's name are the given names only - no surname. In the bmd index, the child's surname is inferred from the parents surname - so in the case of an unmarried mother (where the father is not stated on the cert) then the child will be listed under the mother's surname. Where the father is named on the cert but has a different surname to the mother then the child is usually indexed under both surnames. Of course the child may have been brought up with either surname (or even a step-father's surname) - irrespective of what surname the birth was listed under in the bmd index.

Richard

Not quite sure,of your question can you re-phrase ,,but ,

Yes it would be legal,,

You can be known as any name you choose as long as it isn't for fraudulent reasons.

Kath. x

Yes, I have a few that were brought up with a name other than the one they were registered with.

Sam x

Is it legal to register a child under one surname but bring them up all their lives using another surname? This person registered them under her maiden name but gave her children her married name, even though she was no longer with her husband and he wasn't the father.