Genealogy Chat

Jeesh! you clever lot for working that lot out! And I thought 'I' had probs with my lot!!!Hovers,Overs,Over,Hovard... Phew! Gerri.

Hi Sarah we have one of these in our tree and I would love to know the reason! My husband's ancestor Joseph ARROWSMITH (coincidence!) changed his name to William BUTLER when he moved to Cheshire in 1880 from Herefordshire. he married as Butler, named all his children Butler. Moved back to Herefordshire to retire and reverted to his original name! Butler was his mother's maiden name but I find it odder that he chose William when he had a living brother of that name! netti

I have one born as Annie Bingham who called herself Mary Ann Ince on her marriage certificate. Ince was the name of her mothers 1st husband but was not Annies father. Maybe she thought it sounded better. Ellen X

All those I have who changed name (without anything legal being done) have a reason which is to do with remarriage of their mother. Quite a few of those! I do have one who changed his name by deed poll to be the same surname as my rich rellie. It worked, as he got the inheritance! The name change was reported in The Times newspaper. Merry

Mine have all been minor surname changes - Samson to Sampson, some of the Thompson siblings changing to Thomson, and my branch of the Perrie family becoming Pirrie. My mother's folklore is they swapped from Samson to Sampson as mail was getting confused with other Samson's in the street!

Thanks Heather, This might be a possibility for Edward, the earliest record I can find of him is with his grandparents in 1871. By 1881 he is living with a family called Morgan - the woman my be his aunt or mother - will know more when I get his birth certificate. I'm thinking that he may have taken his step father/guardiand name out of respect. My other grandfather, from what I know of him, may have been doing it to get out of trouble with the police! He later chnaged his name again and quoted a different fathers name on both marriage certificates to his birth certificate Thansk sarah

Sometimes it's when the mother has married again and the child is known by the stepfather's name then reverts to the original name when leaving home or getting married. Heather

Thanks Lucinda, I'm just so curious about why they did it! Sarah

Hi Sarah, I too have had lots of name changes and there is no official documentation!!! The just suddenly started using a new name. At least you know the changes of name which means you can carry on with your research. Lucinda

Hi, Wonder if any of you have had experience of dramatic name changes in your family. Two of my great grandfathers changed their names for no apparent reason in the 1880's. Does anyone know if there was an offical, documneted way of doing this (that I could trace) or did people just do it by common usage For information one grandfather changed from Edward Arrowsmith to Edward Morgan in appox 1882 (in Leicester) and the other changed from Charles Rose to Charles Childe, not sure of the date it could have been from1881-1904 (in London) Thansk Sarah