What surname is/was legal for a 2nd Scottish female marriage?

[Rosinish]

Hi Folks,

Probably not worded correctly but...........

I am helping someone out who has hit a brick wall.

I wonder if the man in question was born to a previous marriage & had taken on his step-father's surname whether knowingly or not?

Anyway............if his mother DID remarry to a man of his "used/adopted surname"................what surname would she have been likely to have used?
I also believe the possible 2nd marriage to have taken place in Scotland too.

Would she have had to remarry with her "old" married surname or her maiden name or would it have been a case of "her choice" as to which surname she used for the 2nd marriage

I believe the man to have been born c1834-1847 & the 2nd marriage (if it did occur) possibly to have been pre 1855? If after 1855 would this have made any difference in the name she would have used to re-marry

I have never come across this before in my own tree I don't think 

Annie

[RJ_Paton]

Would she have had to remarry with her "old" married surname or her maiden name or would it have been a case of "her choice" as to which surname she used for the 2nd marriage

Basically in Law she should have reverted to her maiden name -(in Scots Law a woman does not change her name on marriage but can "adopt" her spouses surname)

I believe the man to have been born c1834-1847 & the 2nd marriage (if it did occur) possibly to have been pre 1855? If after 1855 would this have made any difference in the name she would have used to re-marry

Not in law and also up to the mid 19th century it was common for Widows to revert to their maiden name although this practice appears to die out in the latter part of the century.

The problem is that you have the legal situation and you have "what may have actually happened" and sometimes the theory and the practice just don't meet up at all.

[Forfarian]

Why not tell us the names involved and the definite dates you know? If it was in the 1840s or 1850s there could be clues in the census, but we can't find them without names.

To answer your question: if a woman remarries in Scotland I would definitely expect the record of her second marriage to use her maiden surname, perhaps in addition to her deceased husband's surname.

This is an example from my own family tree:

1834, 26th June. James Hay merchant in Arbroath and Margaret Sang, widow, residing in Timber Market in this parish were contracted in order to marriage and having been regularly proclaimed were married the 30th June. [Brechin Parish Register]
1834. Contracted May 27, James Hay merchant in Arbroath and Margaret Sang in Brechin. Married June 30. [Arbroath Parish Register]

Margaret was the daughter of Alexander Sang and Margaret Mill, and she married Andrew Watt in 1812. He died some time after 1826. Note that there is no mention in the banns for her second marriage of her first husband's name, and only the Brechin one refers to her being a widow.

There are two records because the bride and groom lived in different parishes. Therefore the banns had to be called in both, which results in two records of the same marriage.

[Rosinish]

Why not tell us the names involved and the definite dates you know? If it was in the 1840s or 1850s there could be clues in the census, but we can't find them without names.

Hi Forfar..........

The reason I didn't ask for anyone to find them "at this stage" is that I have plenty of references of BMD's for the areas in question for my research pre 1855.

I am merely putting feelers out as this was something I had considered (re-marrying) but had never come across it myself in my own research i.e. "If you don't ask you won't find out" 

The maiden surname of the woman in question is somewhat rare/not too common in the areas I'm searching.

There are 3/4 areas to cover for my research.

I have found little with her maiden name in any of the 4 areas regarding births of any issue but there is a lack of records too.

I did wonder then, if infact she did remarry would it be possible that she did so using her 1st husband's surname?

I will revert back to where I was at with the possibility of his father having married twice too

Thanks for your direction though as the info. I have is pre 1855 so either parent could have remarried after 1855.............I haven't strolled down there YET!!!

I searched for the parent's marriage 1st off simply because the name isn't common & I was only given the details tonight so I have a lot to look up.
I couldn't find a birth for him with both parent's names from his death cert. & the marriage could have been before the local church kept records 

I will be back soon if I'm unable to get through the brick wall 

Thanks for now,

Annie