I'm not 'new' but certainly new to my new challange! I'm trying to find out where i should start for looking for information on families which changed their surname by deed/ non deed. (i'm not too sure.)
Don't really know much at all about the new line i'm tracing expect the following, i'll try and be as info friendly as i can without babbling.
the family is thought to be irish (at somepoint) but after being in england decided that they wanted to drop the irish sounding part of their name.
the family turned their backs on their daughter for marrying someone out of her religion.
my great grandad knew of his family but didnt ever meet them.
with the surname we arent sure if it changed from O'Kelly or kelley to just Kelly, or if it was O'Brian changed to Kelly (these 2 surnames seem to always pop up when discussing this topic, mainly because kelly is still inda irish sounding considering they didnt want to be thought of as irish!)
Details of the person in question:
Ellen Nelly Kelly (could be kelley/ o'kelly) born 1896 thought to be Durham. d. Great Ayton, north yorkshire on 09/04/1975.
whats annoying is kelly is what appears on a couple of certs, but each one is spelt differently and havent been able to obtain birth cert and no family member was presented as a witness at her wedding. ( she married in 1915 to robert raw.)
so summing up my main question is when did legally changing names happen and did they have to be registered and if so when and are the currently accessible to view?
Any advice on how i should tackle this is soooo appreciated!
Laura
Logged
Cruickshank/ cruikshank - Durham, scotland, Holloway - southampton, wiltshire/Hampshire Moody - London Packard - Crawley, Essex, Hampshire, London Walker - Durham, Irwin - durham Raw - north yorkshire, durham kelly - London, durham, ireland, yorkshire o'kelly -London, durham, ireland, yorkshire musgrave - durham watson -durham sharp - sisson - reed / read - giles - Ireland, London freeman -
If a person wishes to be known by a different name that's up to them. A person has a right to change their name whenever they take the notion provided they do not intend to deceive or defraud another person. There is no legal procedure to follow in order to change a name. A person merely starts using their new name. They can change any combination of their name ... a forename or a surname, add names or rearrange your existing names. Some people have been known to change their names to get a better position in the telephone book. www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/family_parent/family/change_of_name.htm
People have been changing their name by Deed Poll for over a hundred and fifty years. www.deedpoll.org.uk