Please help me solve this mystery!

[shadowlily]

I have been researching my family tree and continually hitting brick walls. I think I may have discovered why this is, it seems one of my ancestors changed his surname entirely.
I found his birth record, then his marriage record (my female ancestor had a pretty unique name, luckily, so she is the reason I have been able to trace the family through time!) but by the birth of their first child just over a year later the whole family have changed their surname. They have then used this surname ever since (in the census etc) but their death record states the original surname again. I have searched newspaper archives, crime records, prison records etc to see if I can find a reason why they may have changed their names so suddenly- but no luck. It was my grandad's grandad who first changed his name and my grandad has a memory of being told (when some relatives were coming) that they might say his surname was X but that it wasn't true and to remember his surname is Y, which is really mystifying! This makes it sound more like a family secret or covering something up. He can't remember asking more about this! His dad died when he was very young, so he has limited memories of him.

I wondered if anyone has had similar experiences in their own family tree or any suggestions about why this might be or tips for how I might find out!

Sorry missed a question- no the surname doesn't appear anywhere else in my family tree and I can find no obvious link to that name anywhere!

Not exactly a suggestion so much as a general idea, but I do think our ancestors were a lot less hung up on accuracy and consistency in written records than we are. My grandfather was registered with one forename and his father's surname but was raised by his mother's family and appears on two censuses with their surname and his given forename. He resurfaces on his marriage certificate with his father's surname, spelt wrong, and has somehow acquired a middle name that came from who knows where (not a family member's name). Then all through his life the forename and middle name get swapped around randomly, on the kids' birth certificates, on the 1939 register, on his death certificate, no consistency to it all. I would like to find his army records (I know he served in WW1) but I have no clue what name they would be under! I just think in an era before widespread literacy, there was a lot less store set by getting these things right.

I worked with someone who's great grandfather had to change his name as it was double barreled and in WWI only officers could have DB names.

Condition of an inheritance?

Bigamous marriage.

To 'fit in' so a Jewish name in an area with few Jews or a German name in WWI or WWII?

Changed with a move to a different area after a scandal?

Depending on how far back apprentices took their master's name, hence so many Smiths, Taylors and Jones' about.

Sorry I wrote the previous reply yesterday afternoon but for some reason it didn't post.

I have another much simpler idea, maybe he was illiterate but learned to write the name he used? Maybe it was on a shop window or a road sign or a vaudeville poster.

I don’t have any idea but if I were you I’d be tempted to do a 23andme dna test to see if any unknown relatives are matched to you.

I know a family with a common surname. Their great grandfather decided to change it to that because the real surname sounded sexually suggestive and provoked a lot of teasing and piss taking, especially for the children in school and his wife who was a nurse.

He'd just had enough and changed their name 🤷🏻‍♀️😂

It really could be anything and although all the speculation is fun, you'll probably never know. People are weird, and do weird stuff.

Family dispute, confusion over someone with the same Miller/Millar name in the same area at the same time, who knows. DNA is a really useful tool in these situations though as the link is proven.

I just had another look at the family I thought might be yours. Even if it's not, it's another reason why someone might change their name

It looks like this Edward Miller was brought up by his uncle, Charles C, a plasterer in the 1871 census. By the 1881 census, he was known as Edward C, and described as a son not nephew. He maybe married under the Miller name, but continued using the C name.

I agree that a DNA test would be useful. I found Ancestry was good, because it has such a large database.

I have a family friend whose father was we think either illegitimate or adopted from perhaps an unmarried mother, she has not been able to trace him despite much searching online, she's not done DNA test yet. He appeared on the 1911 and previous census as John (with real surname as middle name, we think - it's not a usual middle name) Millar. We think he was possibly the adopted child (if they took them that young) of George (not real name) Millar (aged 60 something when John appeared) and new wife, previous one d, Jane Millar (45ish so John likely not her child) as there are much older Millar kids on the census too. George was a Miller and when he d. John was about 12 I think the family moved and Jane brought up John on her own.
Years later when Jane died, my friend thinks it was the real Millar kids - George's family by wife 1 - that descended and reclaimed all George's property paintings, nice furniture etc - my friend remembers this happening as a child pre WW2.

Happy to share actual names (have changed all names other than Millar as it isn't my family/story to share) but don't think connected to yours.

They were 20/21 when they got married Do you have their marriage certificate? I'm wondering who the witnesses were. Are any of them her relatives? I can't help wondering whether she married against her family's wishes, and they changed their name so they couldn't be found.

@WinterIsGone

I just had another look at the family I thought might be yours. Even if it's not, it's another reason why someone might change their name

It looks like this Edward Miller was brought up by his uncle, Charles C, a plasterer in the 1871 census. By the 1881 census, he was known as Edward C, and described as a son not nephew. He maybe married under the Miller name, but continued using the C name.

I agree that a DNA test would be useful. I found Ancestry was good, because it has such a large database.

WinterIsGone you are absolutely brilliant! I don't know how you managed to track that down with such sparse information, I have all of the relevant information and I've spent so, so long trying to unravel this and still failed to spot that link! Thank you so much for looking that up for me, I am so grateful.

So the mystery is solved, thanks to WinterIsGone! It seems he was unofficially adopted (not sure he actually was a nephew, so still a little bit of a mystery remaining!) but continued to go by his birth surname for a while, later alternating between the surname of his birth parents and his adopted family, before later switching entirely to that of his adopted family. However, as the adoption was presumably not official, he used the Miller name for his marriage certificate and his death certificate. It is perhaps indicative of his feelings towards his adoptive family that he wanted to use their surname for his children. Not entirely sure why he used different middle names, but that seems to be not uncommon for the time! So he was not a criminal on the run, a victim of persecution, or a bigamist- just a little boy who was adopted.

Thank you so much to everyone who offered a hand, and huge thanks again to WinterIsGone for her incredible detective skills!

Fantastic - some closure for a change!

Ariela- thank you so much for sharing this too! Another "Miller" mystery, how intriguing! I'll have to have another look at my tree and see if there's any resemblance to the "Millers" I have documented!

Fantastic resolution on this thread! I was going to suggest he'd changed his name after maybe finding out an assumed parent wasn't actually his. Certainly I've seen similar situation to your own in my own tree

I don't know how you managed to track that down with such sparse information
Yes, I was surprised Am glad you've solved the mystery

@ConquestEmpireHungerPlague - if he was 21 when the election was held (1918 I think), all soldiers were enrolled to vote by post, and their details are on the electoral register, so if you know where he/his parents/family lived you can find him. We found a 'Smith' that way. Until then we had it narrowed down to 5 options.

Check where the microfilm of the electoral records are kept for your area. They are in district and street order, not alphabet, so you could be going through 100s or 1,000s of pages, I know I did!!!!

Their military and battalion numbers are in there too.

[quote ClaryFairchild]@ConquestEmpireHungerPlague - if he was 21 when the election was held (1918 I think), all soldiers were enrolled to vote by post, and their details are on the electoral register, so if you know where he/his parents/family lived you can find him. We found a 'Smith' that way. Until then we had it narrowed down to 5 options.

Check where the microfilm of the electoral records are kept for your area. They are in district and street order, not alphabet, so you could be going through 100s or 1,000s of pages, I know I did!!!![/quote]
Thanks @ClaryFairchild, it's a great thought but it doesn't fit, unfortunately, as his change of identity was between the 1911 census and his 1917 wedding. He also seems to have changed area in the same time frame, as the family member who raised him died late in 1911. I've no idea who he was with or where after that until his marriage, which took place in his wife's village (his address on the certificate is just given as a town in a completely different area that there's no other known connection with, but may have been a barracks perhaps).

The family story is that he served in France between 1914 and 1916, but if true I think he would have to have lied about his age to do so, as he was born in 1898 (I now know). (I'm assuming army recruits would need to be 18 but perhaps I'm wrong.) He definitely lied about his age to get married, presumably because he had to be 21 to do it without a parent's consent (and there was no parent in the picture by then, as far as he was concerned anyway).

He was a proper mystery! It's taken me decades to peel back a few of the layers, which is better than anyone else has managed. He knew very little about his origins himself, so I feel privileged to know as much as I do.

I have been particularly interested in this thread, because one branch of my tree changed their name from Muller (too German-sounding in WW1) to Miller.

@PastMyBestBeforeDate

My great grandfather anglicised his name, unfortunately German records were destroyed during ww2 so no trace pre 1911

We also have relatives that lived as a married couple for 55 years (she took his name) despite him being married to another

Good work Winter
Very frustrating when records are gone isn't it mooching? I was investigating US relatives and the 1890 census was destroyed which makes it that bit harder!

Great thread, and so lovely to have a conclusion!!
I have so many questions about my family tree, I wouldn't know where to begin!

Hi OP. Just a suggestion which helped me. A distant relative also seemingly just disappeared. I knew his name, birth and his maritime service details then nothing. I eventually found via probate records. He appeared to have used his wife's surname after he left the navy, got married and settled in Wales. When he died, his probate records had reference to his old surname which luckily was unusual so it stood out. I basically searched year by year from the last year I had records for him. Sounds laborious but it's actually quite quick. Weirdly though, never been able to find any reference to his wife after this date so she may have emigrated as I think she was considerably younger than him.

Very sorry! The whole page hadn't loaded for me and I hadn't realised you had a resolution! Excellent news!