I'm trying to find my Grandfather's original name.
He changed it when he became 18, back in 1941. He was an orphan and never told anyone what it was before he changed it. My dad always said Bair was not far from the original spelling -- he just didn't want it to be the same as someone who didn't want him.
My grandfather passed away last year and I want to know more about my history and his. Can someone please help? Thank you.
If a person changed his name in 1941, then the public records should (seem) to show one person "disappearing" and another one "appearing" at the same place.
In your case, Grandfather's decision to change at a relatively young age (18) reduces the number of traces that will have been left by his former self. But the same basic principles apply.
You need to find the location of the first official reference to his new name. There is a good chance that references to the old self will be found in the same place. That is, if Fred A was working in a bakery in Manchester at age 18, then chances are that Fred B went to school in Manchester until he was 12. (Unless he was so determined to escape his old identity that she shifted across the country at the same time as changing his name.)
Genealogy often involves looking backward for traces of a person who could be an ancestor. Your task is the same with the added complication that you don't know the surname; but you do still have a given name (probably), a date of birth (even if you need to approximate) and a place.
When you find 6 Freds who might fit (or 10 or 50) then you need to look for traces of each of them after 1941. As you locate a story about a person of the same name as the child being demobbed in 1946, then you know that he was not the one who changed his name; so move on to the next. When you have only one candidate left, you have (possibly) found Grandfather.
