Genealogy Chat

This is proving very complicated for me ..my Father FRANK..his siblings..ERIC,BEATRICE,LEONARD.DOROTHY>HARRY.FREDERICKwere all born in BLACKPOOL.some info is ERIC born Dec qtr1903 fylde county Lancashire vol.8e.pg 608....BEATRICE ETHEL JUNE qtr1898..fylde county lancashire vol 8e pg 701 not sure about the others..the thing is that they all had the SURNAME NATION on there birth cert. ...however when my parents were married the surname had been changed to SEYMOUR ..and my maiden name was SEYMOUR nobody has ever told me why or if it was legal , i am not in touch withany family but I do know that their mother was called ADA.It seems then they were all given the middle name of NATION .On the death of my father only a birth cert in the name of FRANK NATION could be found PLEASE HELP !!!!

Were they born with one father, who died or divorced their mother and when she remarried they just assumed the father's surname but did not fill any legal documents/deed poll etc. Or were they distancing themselves from bad associations with the name, eg family rift, imprisonment or other stigma or gossip? Sometimes the surname was used as a middle name if the parents weren't married but got married later for the child to be able to use both/either surnames legally. Kim

You can use any name legally as long as you stick to it. It is not compulsory to change it by deed poll. What you can't do is use two surnames interchangably as you think fit. For whatever reason, it seems that your Nations wished to be known henceforth as Seymours and that is presumably your legal name i.e. the one you are known by.

Thanks Kim ...it does seem a probable reason that my grandmother was married before.i will try and follow it up...though it would be interesting to discover that my family were a bunch of criminals!!!

thanks Helen ...I now have to find out why the name was changed...

Judith This might be useful: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/familyhistory/name/

Thanks Helen. From Judith...