Genealogy Chat

Anybody else got these patterns?? See below.

I’ve got several people on my tree that have what seems to me to be strange naming patterns. Children being given the mother’s first husband’s name as second names. Say Mary Bloggs marries Joe Bloggs and name their firstborn Joe Bloggs Jnr. Then Joe Bloggs Snr dies and Mary Bloggs marries John Smith. They name their first child Annie Bloggs Smith. I’ve got it in about five families, and they are on both sides of tree. Seems strange to me.

Is it possible that Annie Bloggs was the child of the first husband and was called Annie Bloggs Smith after Mrs Bloggs married Mr Smith? Just a thought. A sort of unofficial adoption by Mr Smith?

I checked that Angela, but no. It seems to happen often enough for there to be a reason. Sometimes it's not even the first child of the second marriage. I've got one where it's the fifth.

Hi Elizabeth. I have never heard of that. But you have me thinking now! I can not find my fathers parents marriage. All their children have the middle name of HARLEY and now i am going to look and see if this is the possible reason. Vanessa

My family seems to give the mothers maiden name to one of the sons - very helpful when looking for the parents marriages

I've had this too. My g.g.grandmother married her 2nd husband but she later died. He later married again (3rd time) and when they had a child they used her previous married surname as a middle name for him. Pauline

Elizabeth Do you have the Bloggs to Smith marriage cert? If not, then the children may ahem, have preceded the marriage and would therefore have been baptised Bloggs. When Bloggs and Smith tied the knot, the children would then become Bloggs Smith, by repute if nothing else. Olde Crone

I've got the middle name Friday running through mine, a reference to Robinson Crusoe? Or a significant day of the week? LOL

Olde Crone, I do have two marriage certs where it has happened. The first one was how I found it. The daughter had (fifth child of second marriage) had Bloggs for second name. We were trying to find where Bloggs came from and discovered first marriage. Australian certs have lots more info. Discovered first hubby Bloggs died twelve years before, so couldn't have been father. The other one was much the same except it was the firstborn son of second marriage. Also born well after first hubby died. Bit tacky, I thought.

Oh Elizabeth, welcome to my world of tacky rellies! LOL! Of course as Mrs Bloggs was her name, she was entitled to register the children with that name, never mind WHO the father was, or how long Mr Bloggs had been dead. I am wondering though, if the name Bloggs had more significance for her than just her dead hubby's name - could it possibly be a name in HER family - her Granny's maiden name for instance. Otherwise, yes, I agree its a bit tasteless to give the children of a new relationship a lifelong reminder of a previous relationship! OC

Can't find it anywhere else. That's normally the first thing I look for. And it's in five families. Both sides!! Mind you all the other stuff I've dug up, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. I started doing this so the kids could have it, now I'll never hear the end. All the time I mentioned how morals were slipping these days. Nothing like back then.

Just to add that my friend's middle name is the name of her dad's girlfriend before he married her mum - nice!

My great grandmother was married to Henry Thomas Hickton. He was killed in the Crimean war and she subsequently remarried. The first son of the second marriage she called Henry Thomas. The second son was named after the second husband but that child died, the rest were girls. Every one of her children, from both her first and second marriage named a child Henry Thomas, so there were eight grandson's called Henry! It made it easy to identify families, if there was a Henry Thomas, they were mine! Must have been difficult for husband number 2. Christine in NZ

I've seen a similar odd naming once in my family too. One of my ancestors was the widow of a William Norreys before marrying her second husband then a few generations later the descendants of the second marriage were using Norreys as a first name. I'm not sure if this is just a coincidence or not. I do know that the widow probably regretted marrying her second husband as he was renowned for being unpleasant to her and his children. Sue