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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: DeeG on Saturday 09 April 11 10:06 BST (UK)
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Was it normal in the early - mid-1800`s for someone to change their surname to avoid disgrace on the family after commiting a crime ???
I`ve found a glitch in my search for male Thorneycrofts, and I was wondering if I was chasing the wrong line.
Dee
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i,d say quite pos also bear in mind that an awful lot of people couldn,t read or write so names got spelt phonetically but i suspect you mean it was a completly different name ?! it just means you have to be ultra careful trying to place a person in to your family tree and do as much cross checking as pos to confirm if it,s right or not .
trevor
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What is the source of the confusion?
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I`ve been trying to fine the male line of the Thorneycroft/Thornicroft/Thornucroft family, luckily they seem to of been fairly stable with regard to the area they lived in Staffs. Early 1800`s the Thorneycroft family disappeared and the Turnock family appeared, same Christian names, dates of birth etc.
The glitch is that Edward seems to be the one that initiated the name change. Unless someone else in the family did something that Edward wanted to distance himself and the rest of the family from.
Like I said... confused.com :)
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If you say Thorneycroft in a rich local accent could it be misheard as Turnock? Remember that many people could not read enough to check what was written in census or parish registers.
Andrea
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Was Edward Thorneycroft / turnock the head of this name-change family?
Does his surname have a good solid grounding in Birth & Marriage records?
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The most usual reason for name change that I have so far come across is to avoid being found - whether that be because of debts, a living and abandoned wife or husband, or being on the run after a crime/ falsely accused of a crime. I am sure there are numerous other reasons but these are the ones I have come across. Did your family move after the name change or did they stay in the same place? If they were still in the same place, that would indicate that they were not on the run!
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In my husband's family there is someone who switched back & forth between 2 different christian names & surnames all his life - a real mix & match puzzle!
I have never found a marriage for his parents so suspect they were unmarried - particularly as he was born in Manchester and his family were from north Staffordshire
When he was born he was registered as Richard Plant - taking his father's surname
After his father died, he was brought up by his paternal grandparents and appears on censuses as Richard Horobin - his mother's surname.
He marries as Joseph Horobin, but signs as Richard Joseph Horobin.
After that he appears on censuses, in the parish registers for the bpt or marriage of his children etc as either Richard or Joseph and either Plant or Horobin with no discernable pattern to which name he uses.
Luckily a couple of baptism entries included the words "Horobin alias Plant" so i was able to sort out the family
When he seemed to disappear from one census I eventually found him in Nottingham Jail!
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The Staffordshire name Turnock can be traced back to the 1500's so a well established name rather than a corruption of Thorneycroft which even when spoken with a Black Country accent would be relatively easily understood by an outsider.
As has already been said if they stayed in the same place it's unlikely they had disgraced themselves.It may be Edward wanted to distance himself from his family,a name change being the ultimate "message".
jim
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The most common reason for name changes is as Greensleeves listed.
However, these days but I don't know about early days, it can be for 'witness protection' but then they would normally change address too.
In the early days in Australia there were lists of 'absconded convicts' published regularly in the Government Gazette, and many them were listed as 'Smith alias Jones' etc.
Another common name change reason was in the entertainment field, even way back then. Was he a performer / in a circus / entertainer of any sort?
Dawn M
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Did the family fortune change? Did a Turnock gift the family something in his will but only on the condition they changed their surname?
I have something like that - the male line died out and it was decided the nearest in line was a distant female niece who could have the fortune plus landed estate on the condition her new husband (and their heirs) changed his surname - which he did ;D