Hello ~ Hope this is the right board on which to ask this question
I am researching a Jewish family (Solomons). One of the sons, Leopold, changes his name to Saunders sometime between his marriage to his second wife (Agnes) in 1916 and an appearance on the Electoral Registers in 1919. His death cert states his name as Saunders but his Will notes that he was formerly known as Solomons. The family also, just to confuse the issue further, have adopted the original maiden name of his second wife as a sort of double barreled name, that they sometimes used as a second/third Christian name and sometimes as part of the surname. Further to this conundrum, Agnes had a son by her first marriage (William Taylor) who, between 1916 and 1935, sometimes used the new name Saunders and sometimes referred to himself as Taylor ~ for instance his marriage and birth of his children were registered as Taylor but his Electoral Reg entry was as Saunders, he also started to refer to himself as Jack rather than William. He emigrated to SA in the late 1940s as a Saunders along with his family and elderly mother.
Now that I've confused you all ~ here is my question ~ does anyone know of where any (if at all) records might be held of such name changes or did Jew who wished to "Anglocise" their names sometimes just start referring to themselves under this new name which then eventually became "official"
Thank you
Margaret
