Genealogy Chat

For the purposes of obtaining a passport I believe it is possible to have letter from recognised officials such as your GP or old headmistress etc to say that this is the name you have been known by for many years and the name you use in every day life. You may well need additional info though, I can't remember exactly.

Thanks for the guidance. It also presents a practical problem as the person in question now needs to set up a bank account and has no "official" documents in his current name.

Thanks

Changes of name don't legally have to be documented in any formal way and to change your name is completely legal in England, as long as it's not for criminal/fraudulent purposes. Some used the deedpoll process, but it wasn't strictly necessary. The deedpoll process as I understand it was only registering the change of name, with the help of a solicitor and sticking an ad in the local paper to formalise it, (as my grandmother told me!)

No, there would not have been any form of new registration, unless the child was formally adopted.

The most usual way to record a name change is by Deed Poll, but these are only registered or enrolled, as the process is known by in very few circumstances.

I have the birth of a child late 80's to an unmarried couple. I can see the birth registered in mother's maiden name and father's name as is common practice.

Between 5 and 10 years later I know the mother married someone else and the child now goes by the husband's surname. They apparently went to a solicitor for the name change. Would the change also have to be reflected in the registers or somewhere else as I cannot see it anywhere? How would I go about getting a copy of official documentation as I know the family have lost the original information from the solicitor.

Any ideas?