Husbands taking their wives' surname

[Redroger]

Interesting, I had only previously heard of this historically, primarily in the 19th century, when husbands took the wife's surname in order to secure an inheritance where that was a condition.

[pharmaT]

Surely the birth certificates of any children would have the father's name as Mr Wife's maiden name, formerly previous surname.  So as we tend to move backwards shouldn't cause too much confusion for researchers.

[andrewalston]

Surely the birth certificates of any children would have the father's name as Mr Wife's maiden name, formerly previous surname.  So as we tend to move backwards shouldn't cause too much confusion for researchers.

Only the WIFE's maiden name would be asked for. It's such an unusual situation that the father's name would be assumed to have always been the name he was using at the time.

I've just located another child where birth registration, baptism and burial are in the father's real surname, but the death registration was in the name he was using at the time - all in 1854. It took a little bit of working out.

[pharmaT]

Surely the birth certificates of any children would have the father's name as Mr Wife's maiden name, formerly previous surname.  So as we tend to move backwards shouldn't cause too much confusion for researchers.

Only the WIFE's maiden name would be asked for. It's such an unusual situation that the father's name would be assumed to have always been the name he was using at the time.

I've just located another child where birth registration, baptism and burial are in the father's real surname, but the death registration was in the name he was using at the time - all in 1854. It took a little bit of working out.

A lot of forms these days ask "have you been known by any other surname?" not so difficult to fix

[mike175]

This will really confuse people researching their family history in the future.

I suspect future genealogists will have plenty to be confused about, with same-sex marriages, single parents (by choice), surrogate mothers, etc.

At least they would if they still had 19th century values and attitudes, but things will have changed so much by the next century, in ways  that we cannot begin to imagine . . . DNA may have replaced genealogy anyway