General Chat

My paternal grandfather changed from Roberts to Maudesley, (just to escape capture by his stepfather when he ran away) and on my maternal side 2x great grandfather, Karl Mosskavitch (sounds like that) changed it to Charles Moss about 1856.

Always knew about Charlie Moss name change, but only found out about the Roberts change whilst researching.

kathlyn

David.....I gave up trying to trace my fathers line as he was also illegitimate and registered at birth in his mothers maiden name until his mother married her husband when my father was 3yrs old . then he became known as the name of his so called step father of which he always hated for reasons he has kept to himself .... I suspected at least two men that could have been....to no avail !!

I was bought up with this surname knowing it was not my real name, nothing could be done about....sadly......Oh how I wish I knew my real fathers name !! :-S

And my father is still alive 96yrs.... :-D.... he too would love to have known this secret his mother took to her grave .....

Further to what Karen has said about immigrants changing names, I have 2 (unrelated) friends, both with Russian Jewish grandparents who came over here at the beginning of the 20th century - and both friends have the surname Davies - and neither was originally Davidoff, or anything like it!
Another 2 friends with similar family histories have surnames that are areas of London- presumably where the family first settled.

Wow, this has turned out to be a very interesting post.

As for name changing, well, here's another example....

My mother's parents were Lithuanian immigrants to Britain in the early 1900's...(that's them on the left) so for a start there is dispute over their nationality, as Russia and Poland both took/fought over/lost/reclaimed various parts of Lithuania over the years, so just about out every record shows a different Nationality, thereby also recording the birthplace name in the relevant language too, but nationality varied between Lit/Pole, Polish, Lithuanian, Pole/Russian, Lith/Russian and any permutation thereof!

As if that's not enough, and to get to the point (LOL) - once in the UK it was quite usual to change, or have changed, your surname if you were from foreign parts, because in those days people unused to foreign names just couldn't pronounce them, let alone the authorities who had to write them down and had little enough patience with someone who turned up without being able to speak a word of English!!
And so the surname was changed to something easier on British ears and eyes...usually in one of 2 ways.......
a) they chose something similar sounding to the original, ie URBANAVICIUS became Urban, MILIVICIUTE might beome Miller.
b) their employers, having to write the dreaded foreign name on documents, just changed it for them, it was very common to be given the name of Green, Black, White, Brown.
A true story - a fellow Lithuanian, working in the coal mines alongside my grandad, had a very long surname. In a fit of impatience the employer wrote the man's name as John X. He became known as John Icks.

None of this was done legally, or through any kind of authority, it was just done and accepted. Where there were pockets of immigrant families, this was quite the norm, everone was in the same situation, though it sounds a right odd to-do to anyone who is not familiar with this. All the Lith/Pole/Russian immigrants in my grandma's village changed their names, quite often the christian name too, choosing something more easily pronouncable, or just giving the English translation....ie Juozas was Joseph became Joe. Juonas was John. My g.aunt was Apolonija, she became Lena!.
My g.aunt has several surnames...her maiden name, her anglicised maiden name, her married name, and the anglicised version of that. If you ever have to look at Scotland's People, for an immigrant, you will see the females are recorded with several surnames!

And that is the reason why it is SO difficult, nigh on impossible, to do family history on that side of my tree!!!! LOL

Good luck to all who find surname changes in their family :-))

K

I also have,on my maternal line, a child born out of wedlock in the early 1800's.
The father is named in the parish records as one James Read.
The mother is Elizabeth Baggott. The child is named James Baggott - and the name Baggott followed down the years.

At about the same time,I had an ancestor called either Beecroft/Beechcroft or Buckingham - he seemed to change names at will, depending on what wife he married/buried. It took years of research of parish records before we realised he was the same person.
Mother Beecroft/Beechcroft. father Buckingham - no marriage (yet again)

To bring this up to date, my grand daughter was born out of wedlock, her name is ; Forenames (that's 3!), father's surname-mother's surname.
Now daughter has married, grand daughter (aged 9) wants to have the same surname as her brothers ie forenames (all 3 - original, one g gran, one gg gran - also my second name) father's surname-mother's surname - stepfather's surname.

....And I deny dragging her into genealogy - but what a gem for the future!!!
No good for 'Find my family' though, as she sees her biological father and other half brother regularly!!

I have no idea who my father's father was - neither did he.
We'd both asked gran, and she came out with some fantastic stories.
There was a man dad thought was his father - but not only was he married (no barrier to fatherhood I know) , but he was childless, a family friend, and over 30 years older than my gran (who had dad aged 18) Yeuch!!
When this man died, (he came out of retirement in the war and was killed by a bomb), gran married his widowed friend, but strangely isn't living with him when he 'adopted' dad in 1942.
The last thing gran said on the subjecrt was 'Yuarez'. -but she'd said a lot of stuff before

Personally, I think it was a boy (2 years younger than gran),more than a boy - her cousin. gran's mum died when she was a baby, and she was brought up by a very young aunt - whose eldest (a boy) was 2 years younger than gran.
The only other clue I have is that dad had emphasemia at the age of 10- and emphasemia is hereditary. If it's from his dad's side, I just have to find someone who (possibly) died of the disease :-0

Bit of a difficult question to answer for you,
after my parents died, I found out that my father had changed his name when he was in his 20's,for my whole life I thought that was my surname,
my brothers also.
Even starting out on this Family Tree business,was trying to find family of that surname.
What a fool I felt,when others asked if I had any connection to XX,
it took me a long time to get over this fact.

When I see others researching this surname,I quietly read,and give a tut,and click on the mouse.

To me from the 1800's early 1900's it doesnt matter,what people did or changed their names to,but its the present day blunders,that affects people the most.
I'm waffling now,so will end,
I was going to delete,but decided to post anyway.
At least I wasn't called Smith.lol!!!!!!!!!! :-D

I am in the same boat. My grandfather was born 1863, illegitimate as well, as were his 2 younger brothers. At birth they were all registered as Rogers and on each census their mother called herself unmarried. Until 1881 when the youngest was about 6 y/o and suddenly they are all called Davies and the mother states she is a widow! Though we have never found a marriage to verify her widowhood, I suppose there is a possibility that one took place. This would all make sense except that on the 1881 census, her one brother had also changed his name to Davies. (The others retained the name Rogers.)
Following my divorce I returned to the use of my maiden name, and in no time flat I learned the above information, felt totally shattered, after my effort to go back and reclaim my own name, it might not even be mine LOL.
My current trail involves identifying my great grandfather. On each of the 3 sons marriage certificate they state their father's name was Davies, one called him Thomas, one called him Mark and one called him John! This is all sent to confuse me and has successfuly achieved that status!
Mary

Well my paternal grandfather was German and was named Fahse with the umlauts over the "a" He changed his name to Fasey .as did his elder,bros and said he was British born in Bradford (where the youngest brother was born after the family came to England,)when he enlisted in the British Army
Both he and his brother adapted their fathers name on the marriage certs and on their Army records. Got both from 1896-1906.
Registered as Fasey on both death records too, Strictly speaking then our name was Fahse not Fasey as it was an assumed name & never changed legally.

My paternal grandfather was born out of wedlock and took his mothers surname. My great grandmother was only 16 at the time and the man she married 2 years later, was also only 16 when my grandfather was born. I have never been 100% sure if her husband is his biological father, but he brought him up as his own along with the children they had during their marriage and my father and his brothers and sisters always referred to him as their grandfather. Although we don't share the same surname, he is in my family tree as my great grandfather and his family are my ancestors.

Val (in North Herts)

Research has shown that my paternal grandfather was born a Roberts in 1874, but when he left home as he did not get on with his stepfather, he took his mothers maiden name of Mawdsley.

He ran away the first time and joined the army, but stepfather found him and hauled him home as he was underage. Not to be outdone, he tried a second time, signed on a ship going to Australia and used his noddle and signed on as Maudesley. He chose this spelling just in case stepdad also used his noddle.

Kathlyn

My biological grandpa was named and it was recorded on the records in the home where she gave birth. Complete with full name, address, occupation etc.,

I have split that line and have natural and adopted. Makes things confusing but I always associate myself with Grandma's line as they seem more 'mine'

A single mother cannot name a father unless he is present at registration and agrees.

Someone has said that the only true line is the female one - but personally in your circumstances, I'd tend to follow the 'assumed' paternal line. After all, he was probably the main male influence in the child's life.

If the child had an odd sounding middle name, that *might* be the biological father's surname. Similarly if one of the names is not a 'family' one, it could be his. Not that it would help you much! :-)

Hi All

While researching my paternal line, I found that my GG Grandmother had a child "out of wedlock", and to protect the father, used her own surname. So, my true paternal name isn't what I thought it was.

Should I care? For genealogical research purposes, should I trace back the family of the person who I suspect is my 'blood' GG Grandfather???

cheerz, Dave