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Beginners => Family History Beginners Board => Topic started by: doodleysquat on Wednesday 09 February 11 17:37 GMT (UK)
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I know it was very common to use the wife's surname before marriage as the middle name of the first child. But, if she then remarried or started a family with another man, was it common for her to give the child by him a surname as a middle name.? .....&, if so, would she have considered her own name "used up" already & have taken the surname of a favourite relative /friend/benefactor ?
I know generalisations are dangerous but I was just wondering if anyone had come across this as something that happened reasonably often
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Hi there
Very hard question to answer. I can only give you my experience as we havent had many re-marriages in our family but the few that happened
seemed to use the new wifes or husbands family names for their kids??
regards
Sandymc
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was it common for her to give the child by him a surname as a middle name
Are you asking about using her maiden surname again? If so - there was nothing to stop her doing so.
If she was not legally married on the second occasion - or even if she was - I have seen many instances on RC where the children have all been given the same surname as a middle name
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The fact that my father had his grandmothers maiden name as his middle name has helped me pinpoint the marriage of his grandmother.
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I know there was no law to stop her using her maiden name again....just wondered if it was frowned upon if the child who had it in her first marriage was still alive.
And, if she/her new husband didn't want to use it again, would it have been customary to give the first child of the second marriage a surname of a favourite relative/friend/benefactor
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I have recently found a family where the husband's first wife had died and the second wife named all the subsequent children from their marriage with her maiden name as a middle name.
It often occurs more than just the first born (but perhaps that's just in Suffolk ::)
we often do things differently.
Pat ...
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Hi
I had an ancestor who used her maiden name, then her mothers, then her aunts husband's name...... :)
And this was in both marriages
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I don't think it would be safe to assume a clear rule either way, each ancestor to their own. In my own tree I haven't always been able to identify where a surname used as a forename has come from (and it's by no means only the oldest child that has the 'family' middle name):
Silvester - mother's maiden name (oldest child, daughter)
Wheatley - mother's maiden name (fourth child, second son)
Lewis - no idea, but long before it was fashionable as a forename (second son, and carried down several generations)
Watson - maternal grandmother's maiden name (eighth child)
Pitman - mother's maiden name (oldest child, son)
Powell - no idea (third child, second son)
Pennyman - no idea (fifth child)
Corpes - maternal grandmother's maiden name (fifth child)
Dobson - paternal grandmother's maiden name (seventh child)
Ellis - mother's maiden name (sixth child, third daughter)
Lodge - no idea (fourth child, first daughter).
Wiley - no idea (sixth child)
Warrington - no idea (fourth child, second son)
For all those where I've no idea I've ruled out the maternal maiden name and in most cases the grandmother's maidens names too. All I can say is that some of my lines seem to have a tradition of including a surname and some definitely didn't .
Ermy
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removed
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Other than relatives you do sometimes get children named after close friends, or local worthies (the doctor etc), famous people, and so on.
It is worth considering what first names go with the name - I have one which nearly always goes with "John" which goes back from my grandfather to a marriage in the 1700s, and I'm sure if you looked at children with the middle name "Nelson" born in the UK you'd find a higher than usual number of Horatios among them.
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Interesting...................only now that I have been traceing my ancestry have I found out why my Dad's middle name was Green......................his Grandfather died and Grandmother remarried a Mr Green as my Dad's father was only 3 when his father died he was brought up with all his half siplings named Green.
I just wonder why they gave only my Dad this middlename as he had 4 older Brothers and a sister, guess I'll never know but think it was quite a nice gesture to carry the name.
Eliz