Genealogy Chat

I have been trying to trace some of my late mother in laws family but after 1891 census could not find any info. It now seems that in on the 1901 census the family were using the Mother's surname rather than the fathers. I have spoken to an elderly uncle who does not know anything about this but all the christian names and birthdays tie up.

Does anyone have any ideas as to why this should happen.

Maybe there are some skeletons in the cupbord!

I have one who did that but it was only for one census and the only thing I can think of is that they may have had money problems.
I also have a Great Uncle who emmigrated to Canada with his new bride. He also used his wifes name but that was because he had fallen out with his father over the marriage and didnt want to be found.....although he came out of hiding after she died in childbirth.

I guess there are any number of reasons why they do these things....other than keeping us on our toes lol

My 2 x great grandmother had a double barrelled name, and I often wondered why.
On looking up records, I found one of her Ancestors was the daughter of a man who had a boat building business,and she married a labourer.
She kept her surname with her husbands name added in front .
Suppose the father wanted his daughter to keep their family name, bit of snobbishness, as she had married a common labourer no doubt.

You will occasionally find the man's surname given as, for example, Smith alias Jones.

According to the historian Antonia Fraser this indicates the man has opted to be be known by his mother's maiden name.

Perhaps the most famous example is Oliver Cromwell. His father opted to use his mother's much more influential maiden name in preference to her married name of Williams.

There are several family documents that refer to "Cromwell, alias Williams".

Have you viewed the census image to see if a relative is staying with them, sometime the enumerator makes a mistake and lists everyone under the one name.

It may be worth you while looking for family wills around that time, sometimes there is a clause in a will that a change of name is required to recive the inheritance.

To add to the previous post, alias is sometimes uesed where a man takes on his step-father's name.

Jennifer

I found this confusing, as my grandads nan has her grandparents surname. And to this day we still can not find out who the father of her children was as they were all had her grandparents surname and not their fathers.

It appears common place in Scotland for a wife to retain her maiden name. An absolute boon when your looking for Campbell married to Brown in the census.

I was researching a wealthy Dixon Family in Lincs and one of the daughters who was about to marry was told if she kept her name and her husband changed his to hers they would inherit the Hall.
It dosent take a rocket scientist to figure out she did retain her name!.