RootsChat.Com
Beginners => Family History Beginners Board => Topic started by: BETTS7 on Monday 28 July 14 11:28 BST (UK)
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I am looking at my Staffordshire ancestors and have consulted other family trees on the Ancestry site. It seems that everyone is happy to accept a woman dying and being buried using her maiden name. Would that have been the case back in the 1600's?
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Hi
Yes it would .The practice of women using their maiden name after marriage continued in England up to the early 1700's .In Scotland the practice continued until the mid 1850s and except for the census a woman would have kept her maiden name and it is used on children's baptisms etc.In Scotland deaths can still be looked up using the woman's maiden name.
So it's quite acceptable for these trees to have deaths for women under their maiden names.It actually makes them easier to find ,although i can see that it adds to the confusion about whether they are married or not.
Hope that helps
Ciderdrinker
ps I don't suppose the woman concerned is a Ann Shropshire from West Bromwich?
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Thanks - I didn't know that. No it isn't your person.
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I would still be looking for a death in her married name. Ancestry trees are notoriously unreliable and people copy on information without checking it.
Who are you talking about.
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Hi
Yes it would .The practice of women using their maiden name after marriage continued in England up to the early 1700's .In Scotland the practice continued until the mid 1850s and except for the census a woman would have kept her maiden name and it is used on children's baptisms.
http://www.gwoodward.co.uk/guides/marriages.htm
Change of surname on marriage
Since marriage records began in 1538 it has been the custom in England for women to change their surname on marriage from their birth name to that of their husband. This was probably the case before the records began, although in the middle ages some men who married into high status families changed their name to that of their wife in order to perpetuate the 'family line'