Surname changes

[Steve C]

Been doing some more family tree research over this lovely bank holiday weekend and got me thinking

I have come across 2 situations during the late 1800`s early 1900`s where an ancestor has died but the remaning partner has eventually remarried. On both ocassions the children ended up with the "New" fathers surname.

So for example they were born Smith but on the next Census ten years later they have Jones surname.

My query is, Would the names have been changed by deed poll? If they didn`t get changed would this have caused problems when getting married? Would you have needed a birth certificate to prove who you were before getting married?

These are probably daft questions but curiosity has got the better of me and would like to hear what other people think.

Many thanks Steve

[bedfordshire boy]

Answer to all questions is no.

It's not certain that they actually changed their surname if the only place you've found the new name is on a census. The enumerator may have assumed they had the same name as the head of the household.

I've seen many cases in censuses where children appear with their stepfather's name, yet marry with their birth name. And the other way round! And with name alternating between censuses

David

[Steve C]

Thanks for that information David

As a follow up question, "Would a divorced or widowed man have to prove his status before re-marrying"?

The reason I ask is because in one instance an ancestor remarried stating on his second marriage certificate that he was widowed but he wasn`t

Steve

[bedfordshire boy]

No again, otherwise there wouldn't have been bigamists

David