Genealogy Chat

Hi all,
I've come across 3 people on census recently where the relation to the head of house is son or daughter "in law".
They were all children, with different surnames to the head of house and his wife. One was only 3 yrs old.
Am I right in thinking it must mean "adopted"? Or something other than what we mean nowadays? Stepchildren?
Petrina

My experience has been that quite a lot of step children or parents are often called "in law".

It usually means step-daughter or step-son.

Kath. x

Thanks, Susan,Kathleen that will give me another path to check!
P

Yes, I have that with my great-grandma. Her mum had an illegitimate baby son, then married great-great grandad and had the eldest two. Her kids with the husband were down as "son" and "daughter" but the illegitimate son (under her maiden name, not the husband's name) was "son in law".

I always presumed, with census records, it was a way for the head to say "this is not my child but in law I would be considered his father" or something similar. (Interestingly, when I went through the parish records, it turned out that illegitimate son was baptised, aged 6, the same day as his younger baby half-brother and both children were given the name of the man they probably knew as "Father".)

Usually find its step children that a remarriage has brought along. You will probably find by the next census they have been integrated into the family and the step fathers name is being used. The only time they seem to revert to their original name is on official docs like Marriage certs and Military sign ups.