If maiden name is also married name

[coombs]

I have a distant uncle who married in 1844 to a woman of the same surname and the birth certificate of one of their children says "Mary Obey formerly Obey". I then found that they were 2nd cousins.

[genjen]

My family tree is littered with Smith/Smith relationships and it has sometimes been difficult to fathom out just how they worked. My grandparents were both born Smith, though my grandma had been married so she was "Frost, formerly Smith".

The trickiest though was finding a mother for John Smith, my great-grandfather. I had his father's name as William Smith but could find no birth record for John, in the appropriate timescale, which made sense. In the end, I sent for the certificate which I was convinced was his ( the date matched an entry in a family bible) and found that his mother was Mary Ann Smith, née Smith. The problem was that William Smith was, at this same time, married to someone else, so he quite plainly had an extra-marital relationship with Mary Ann, who subsequently followed him from Sunderland to Middlesbrough - and married someone else! In the meantime, great-grandad John Smith's name was changed to Matthew!! Confused....yep, me too! I have some very clever Rootschatters to thank, for helping me get to the bottom of this one!

When I rule the world, it will be against the law for one Smith to produce offspring with another!

[clairec666]

When I rule the world, it will be against the law for one Smith to produce offspring with another!

When any genealogist rules the world, Smiths will be banned altogether. Or at least, they have to give their children three middle names or a very distinctive first name.

[genjen]

Indeed! Both of my maternal great-grandfathers were John Smith, both of their fathers were William - and so it goes on!

[Wiggy]

That has to be the down side of naming your family after their grandparents doesn't it. 

Five boys in a family all living in one district, all marrying and staying put and all calling their children after their grandparents.  Bound to be trouble - so I found with my Yorkshire families.       

Can we add Browns, Jones, Williams, Gaunts, to the list of banned surnames - (and Johnstones iin Dumfriesshire)

[coombs]

Well imagine finding a Patrick Murphy born c1860, Ireland, who moved to England c1885, his marriage cert says his dad was also Patrick Murphy a labourer, and Patrick Jnr just gave "Ireland" as a birthplace on census records. Trying to find the right baptism and parents in Ireland would be impossible.

In Wales lots of people married others with the same surname due to less occurrences of surnames. Williams married Williams, Jones to Jones etc. Co Durham I find can be very tiring as there seems to be thousands of William Hodgson's who had a daughter Margaret.