Genealogy Chat

Thanks for your tips and information on this. I got married in 2007 and had to provide birth cert and or passport etc, so I thought it was the same years ago.

At least I feel confident I am on the right path now.

Thank you all and good luck with your searching

Heather

Apparently it was quite common to use an alias where you were brought up by a stepfather even if you were not illegitimate.
In the 17th century it was sometimes, albeit rarely, carried on down through the family for several generations!!!!

In researching family history it is seen to be 'good luck' to find use of aliases as it can prove family connections that otherwise would be difficult to confirm!.....In a lecture I heard of someone who stated in a will that he was sometimes known as 'xxx' that being the name of his grandmother on his father's side!!!!!

I learnt recently that you do now have to provide a birth certificate to marry....I certainly didn't in 1984, which is even more recent than Kathleen. However my sister ,who was just 18 when she married, in the 1970s did as the Registar didn't believe she was 18.

Chris

I got married in 1969 and you didn't have to show your birth certificate then.

Kath. x

I'm glad I not the only one who has found this problem, but sorry for you who have suffered like me trying to untangle the web. What about when people got married did they not have to show their birth cert? Because mine would have one in the name of Samways but married under the name of Palmer?

Perhaps I stick to the rules to much but years ago my family threw caution to the wind???

Heather

I spent years looking for my grandmother's birth and eventually discovered she had been born about 6 months before her mother married and had been registered in her mother's name. Four years on, however, on the 1881 census she was shown under her mother's husband's name and this was the name she used up to and including her marriage. This begs the question, was her mother's husband actually her father? I shall never know.

My gt grandfather started using his grandfathers surname after he married.
His grandparents never married.

At his marriage he used the surname as a middle name.
All his children are registered with his grandfathers name.

Then my grandmother confirms my findings when I found her first marriage with the middle name added. The only reason we think he did this was because his grandfather left a will and he inherited .

Hi Heather

I didn't have this in my own family, but it happened loads of times in my hubby's cousin's family. There was usually a reason for the name change in these families. E.g. Mum Eliza married John Longden. He died. After he died she shacked up with James Wadsworth and had two children, named Longden cos she wasn't married to James Wadsworth. Then she married James and the two kids called themselves Wadsworth. They were clearly the kids of James Wadsworth but weren't registered in his name. Another was Thomas Ingham who was born to Ann Kelly out of wedlock, father totally unknown, but once his mother married an Ingham, he used that name. Then there was.....it gets worse, and putting it all in the tree is a nightmare too!

Maggie

You can do it legally ..... or by deed poll


but usage is simplest.

Some people put a notice in the newsaper that effective such and such a date so-and-so will be known as os-and-os ............. and that is perfectly legal as well.


As long a the change of name is not meant to deceive.


and it was the same way back when, as well as today.


I remember helping someone on here trying to find her family ..... it eventually turned out that the father had changed the surname of the whole family soon after getting married and they had moved away from the home village. However, they kept all other details correct ..... so like you we kept turning up this family with th wrong surname but the right other details. Then suddenly some of them, including the mother, turned up under the original name ....... AFTER the father had died. I guess she still hasn't found out why her ancestors did that!


Just one of those little mysteries they like to leave around for us to try to solve ....... or to drive us mad!



sylvia

Thanks for this, I thought you had to do something legal.

Heather

You can wake up tommorow & decide to call yourself whatever you like!

You dont have to do anything official just lt it be known, and away you go

My understanding is that it's not against the law to change your name provided it is not intended to deceive.
The name on my birth cert differs to the one I have now..............my mother remarried after my fathers death and I assumed stepfathers name although it was never legally changed.

I wonder if anyone can help me? I have been searching for my Great Grandfather William Palmer born in 1856 in Compton Valance, Dorchester. I can find no records of him but I can for a William Samways. It seems that Williams father was Henry Palmer alias Samways. Later on I pick up William Palmer on the census, which is definitely him but he is using the name of Palmer and his marrage certificates are in the name of Palmer. If Henry was born out of wedlock and therefore was registered in his mothers name & when he married and had children they would also be registered as Samways, how can William decided to drop Samways and take on the name of Palmer?
I hope this makes sense to someone out there, it hardly does to me.....

Heather