Reasons for name change at the point of marriage?

[gpneale]

What do you think would have led to Sarah Jones changing her surname to Parry on her 1872 wedding record?

Grateful for any suggestions about what might have gone on here (please see attachment).

[rosie99]

I would think that either she was illegitimate and using her mothers surname and that the clergy wrongly wrote it down on the document assuming that her surname was the same as her birth fathers surname (If known)

OR

It was her step father that was Edward Jones and that the clergy had wrongly assumed her surname was the same.

Do you have proof of her birth name

[gpneale]

Fascinating Rosie and thnak you. I don't have the confirmation of her birth name....yet, but am working on it. There's something awry somewhere as she gave birth to a child out of wedlock, married a man (the father?) a year after the census. The census has her as aged 16, the marriage 20.

Also, it doesn't have 'deceased' after her father's name at the marriage, but the mother is a widow in the 1871 census.

Starting to wonder if it is two different people.

[rosie99]

Whether a father is deceased is not a question that the clergy is required to ask when a couple marry.
It is not always reliable when it does state deceased and often covers an 'invented' father when the bride/groom was illegitimate.

[chris_49]

Whether a father is deceased is not a question that the clergy is required to ask when a couple marry.
It is not always reliable when it does state deceased and often covers an 'invented' father when the bride/groom was illegitimate.

Seconded - by a descendant of invented fathers

[rosie99]

I see that Edith Jones was a witness.  In 1861 there is an Edith Jones in Shifnal with father Edward Jones and mother Hannah, she was only 4  so around 15/16 at the time of that marriage.

Her birth registration
JONES, EDITH       mmn PARRY 
GRO Reference: 1856  Sept Quarter in SHIFFNAL  Volume 06A  Page 523
 

[gpneale]

Update - it appears she was born, or at least baptised a Jones:

Sarah Jones
Gender   Female
Baptism Date   22 Jul 1855
Baptism Place   Donington,Shropshire,England
Father   Edward Jones
Mother   Hannah

Seems legitimate?

[rosie99]

She is on the 1861 census that I mentioned earlier as Jones.

Perhaps she just misunderstood a question and gave her mothers maiden surname when asked

[gpneale]

Indeed - it could be as simple as that.

Or me making up scurrilous rumours 150 years afterthe event!

There's still no way she was 20 when she married though...

Thanks for all the help Rosie / all.