Is formerly same as maiden?

[chuck]

I was double checking something on 1837online in relation to my fathers birth. I found the record and noted that the mothers maiden name was Brown. On his birth certificate it says that his mother was formerly Bonner.

Now there is not much of a chance that they can be different people.

On 1837online its listed as
Year Oct Nov Dec 1923. Name Lionel B. Mothers maiden name Brown. District Petersfield.

On the birth certificate its exactly the same apart from the mother being known formerly, not maiden name as Bonner.  

Could formerly mean she was married twice?

[Chris in 1066Land]

Hi Chuck

From my 14 years of genealogical research I would say you are correct in assuming that your grandmother on your fathers side was previously married to a Bonner, but her maiden name was/is brown.

I have a family member who left her husband quite recently and set up shop with a new fella, giving him two boys. In the GRO those boys are registered twice - in the name of the mother first marriage, i.e, Jones and in the name of her 'live in lover' i.e. Smith
On the second registration it gives her new name 'Smith' and formerly known as Jones, It does not mention her maiden name.

"Names have been changed to protect the innoncent"

Chris in 1066Land

[granny13]

For your future reference anything marked maiden or nee is the females maiden name.  Formerly is where someone had been married and if they had been married more than once it would mean the last one. Hope this is helpful.

Jean

[Sylviaann]

Sorry to contradict but On all the birth certificates I have the word formerly refers to the last name the woman had and in all my cases it was a maiden name.

Nee is definately a maiden name but none of my certificates say this.

I have all birth certificates for all my ancestors born after 1836, that's 14 I think

[juju9999uk]

In some cases yes it is.
I had something similar on one of my birth certificates it lists the mother with her
"then married"  name
with "late" which was her previously married name underneath.
Then "formerly" which was her maiden name.
It was very confusing at first, though I managed to find her first marriage and birth to confirm which way round it was.
Regards
Juju

[Snoosh]

I am pleased to enter the RootsChat community with this, my first posting. I have recently done some study of the term "maiden name", and particularly the distinction between this term and the term 'birth name".
On my GRO birth certificate and that of my sister the entry in Column 5 is quite unambiguous. The word "formerly" is used to describe my mother's maiden name...the surname she had before she was married. This surname is NOT the same as the surname she was born with, but is the name she had at the time of her first (and only) marriage. My mother was born illegitimately with her mother's surname, but her mother married when she was only a young girl of 4, so she grew up with (and subsequently entered marriage) with her stepfather's surname. Although "maiden name" and "birth name" are USUALLY the same for most women, for my mother (and no doubt many other women) her maiden surname was absolutely NOT her birth surname. For debates like this I like to refer to the Oxford English Dictionary!

[brigidmac]

My grandmother was also a '.  Love child    ' as sh e.  was born before 1924 adoptions were not legal

Her marriage cert says single : Hallis(name she went by at school and work .) formerly Roberts (birth name).

In 1901 May Roberts was a boarder with the Hallis couple in their  sixties

By 1911 she was down as maisie Hallis adoptive daughter of Samuel Hallis aged 70

[trish1120]

Ok, worked out Lionel B's Surname.

It strange as I can find 4 Children, Mothers Brown Reg before that Petersfield; 1915/1917/1921

And this Marriage;
ANNIE L Smith 1920 Petersfield; Edward BONNER on same page.

Gosh FreeBMD has gone down so cant check anything else

[sillgen]

Original post was in 2004 and poster has not been on since so don't spend too much time on that query!