Questions tagged [name-change]
For questions about people who have changed their given name or surname. This includes name changes upon marriage, adoption, or immigration, as well as the use of aliases.
25 questions
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What name birth or step
In my life, I have never been known by my birth name, only by my step name. In my marriage, both birth and step names are recorded, my children are recorded in my step name. I want to start a family ...
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Why would my grandmother's surname only be founded in 1875?
I have been exploring the various ancestries in my family and all of them can be traced quite far back, except for one. My grandmother's ancestry can be traced no further back than the late 1800s, and ...
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1921 Census and noting name different in Ancestry
I use Ancestry for my family tree and consistently for all women I have then with their maiden surname.
I have a case where on her birth certificate it was:
Fanny Priscilla Selby
On the 1921 census ...
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How do immigrants change their names?
My grandfather was born in Sweden in 1877 and he was a Johansson. He came to the U.S. in 1891 and the next record I can find is his Naturalization and his name is now Erickson.
Where did he get his ...
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Finding record of US name change in 1920s in New York?
My Grandmother immigrated to the US from England in 1911. She appears as Sophie Charney in the 1920 US census, but in 1924 she appears as Shirley Charney in the New York State marriage record to my ...
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Name change documentation for child naturalized in the United States via his father
According to NARA's online research guide Naturalization Records, in the United States:
From 1790 to 1940, children under the age of 21 automatically became naturalized citizens upon the ...
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Including Names That Changed in Online Trees
Say I have a person legally born (for example) as Harry William Smith, but he was known by everyone since his teenage years as Buddy. His father passed away when he was young and his mother remarried ...
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Including name change for transgender person in genealogy
I'm modifying a genealogy (updating an old, written one, that is) which includes a trans man. We will have him listed as male (of course), and will not be recording the (apparent) change in gender (...
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Change birth name or use Also Known As
Francis was born in 1857. Registrar entry sighted and records only one first name. Original birth record not available.
Electoral rolls from 1905 to 1914 record Francis Joseph and other names and ...
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Finding name changes and surname usage for children?
The following are from Queensland Australia records.
Margaret married James in 1886. They had 3 children between 1888 and 1895.
From 1897 to 1907 Margaret registered 4 more children. There was no ...
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Name changes in Canada in the 1920s?
My great-grandfather died in WW1 and then my great-grandmother remarried and had more children with her second husband. This would have been 1920s rural Saskatchewan. All of the children took one last ...
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Using DNA to link individuals after a name change
How do I go about using genetic testing to support (or disprove) the identity of an individual before a name change?
My great-great-grandfather, Everett T Malcom, would just say, "It's me own ...
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How can I distinguish between name changes and missing records?
Every now and again I come across a person, who seems to have changed their name. For example, a birth/baptism record may have one name, while subsequent records (marriage, census…) use another for ...
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How do we properly use née for given names?
I know after checking various sites that née is often used after the current family name and before the maiden family name for a woman.
But how is it properly used before a person's original given ...
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How to handle name changes in records?
Is there a standard for how to write a person's name in genealogy records or family trees?
What I'm getting at is what to do with the maiden names, or previous names. If Peter Svensson was born 1900, ...
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Searching databases for ancestors with aliases?
I have a probable ancestor about whom I know very little, except for the fact that he used an alias and he is mentioned in his father-in-law's will. The two names are quite common - something along ...
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Why do people use a different first name to their given name?
I have a number of people on my family tree that did/do use a different first name than the one they were given at birth. In some cases, they have used their middle name as their first name, in ...
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Adding adoptive grandfather's surname in Texas, USA?
My husband's grandmother married a man who adopted her son, but he kept his original surname.
Due to family issues, my husband was raised most of his life by his adoptive grandfather.
He is ...
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How to Audibly "Hear" the pronunciation of a text name or pronunciation coding?
I am trying to determine how a name 'might' sounded based on text values how a name is pronounced audibly.
I am aware of SoundEx and this calculator for it, the improved MetaPhone, Double Metaphone, ...
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Did Edward Buten change his name from Edward Bulen?
For several years I have hit a dead end with one branch of my family tree. My Great Grandfather Edward Buten married by Great Grandmother Elizabeth Mary Ann Dunnington in 1893 at the Islington ...
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Finding birth-name of male Ohio ancestor who changed name in about 1926?
My grandfather was born in Ohio in 1909.
He was said to have changed his name at the age of 17 and left home.
I know he had siblings, but not the names of any of his family.
How would I find out ...
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Finding original Polish surname of 19th Century immigrant to United States?
My great, great grandfather's American name was Steve Voiten. I know his Polish given name was Stanislaw, but our family records say Woytinkewicz as a last name. I can't find any evidence of that ...
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Did 19th century English women sometimes change the first name they used?
I have some confusing, conflicting sources that suggest that the one woman went by two different names. They relate to the parents of Cyril Albert Victor House, born in 1897. His christening record ...
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Could 'Annie' be a Pseudonym for Augusta
There is a branch of my paternal grandmother's family that I am currently trying to document. I have a copy of her grandfather's (my great grandfather) birth certificate.
I apologise for that rather ...
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Name change records for New York City (NYC)?
One of the people I am researching appears to have changed her name: in the 1915 NYC census she appears as Reva Osernoff, living with the Axel family:
Similarly in the 1920 federal and 1930 censuses:
...
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