Family Scandals!!!

[linhow]

Hi folks,
I'd be interested to hear how others proceed when they come across a family scandal.
For instance; it was only some years after her death, that I was informed that the lady I had known as my Grandma, had in fact never married my grandfather & had either changed her name by deed poll or was just known by that surname for so long - it stuck. She was in fact buried under her "assumed" name & there's no-one to ask about her previous name(s).
Is there a way to access deed poll name changes; it seems ridiculously easy to change your name these days!
Any ideas on how to unravel that sort of problem?
Cheers,
Linda H

[janetc]

Hi I have two scandals in my family.One was a murder/Suicide which we had been told a small amount of info about but when i got the death cert and read details decided i did not like my relative very much.When ifound small newspaper cuttings about then decided it was acrime of passion but still not very impressed.The second scandal involves my grandfather who does not appear on any birth certs for his sons/daughters on our side as he had two families!!!!! we are the unofficial lot so it makes life hard to find him with what little info i have. It has made it a lot more interesting knowing there is scandal to unearth and ihave little doubt i will uncover more.

[Geoffers]

I'd be interested to hear how others proceed when they come across a family scandal.

I rub my hands with glee. Truth be known, it's what we all like to find

For instance; it was only some years after her death, that I was informed that the lady I had known as my Grandma, had in fact never married my grandfather & had either changed her name by deed poll or was just known by that surname for so long - it stuck.

Very, very. very unlikely that she used any offical means to amend her surname. Changes in use of name are quite common, and often (but not always) come about beacuse of illegitimacy. Changes of surname occurred then (as they can now) by useage - there's nothing to stop you calling yourself anything you like.

The fun bit is trying to find evidence upon which to give grounds for an idea as to why there was a change in name.

Geoffers

[Donauschwaben]

Okay my family has a few....

1st one

My 5th great grandmother Mary Ann Vane/Courtenay(1784-1846) was the product of an affair that Sir William Courtenay, Earl of Devon, viscount of Powderham had witha a lady...(unkown name) ther family after finding out about the girl after William died (she was only 4) they kicked her out of the family and destroyed all records of her...she was sent to canada to marry a english soldier under her mothers names Vane (kin to Sir Harry Vane, Puritan Govenor of Mass. On her way to canada her ship encountered a storm on the shores of labrador where it sank and she was the only survivor, while stranded in labrador she met Louis Chevalier also an illegimate child of Annie Chevalier(1745-1813) and Philip Lloyd(1756-1804) (Lloyd Bros.)

They married and there children were the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Jones, Robertson and Chevalier family of newfoundland and labrador.

[maxinc]

Yes I found a family scandal as well. I was looking up the world war 1 service record for one of my great uncles when I found a hand written letter from my gggrandfather. It stated that my great aunt (his wife)was now in prison under her alias but it was believed that the authorities were aware of her real identity. As to why she was in prison I have never been able to find that out or for that matter what happened to her as my great uncle appears to have remarried after returning from the war.

Sandy

[Mythology]

I still chuckle over my Vicar who shacked up with his niece (his married sister's daughter) in the early 1870s, moved parishes and passed her off as his wife.

Ten kids, and I have a suspicion that somebody may have shopped him to the church authorities in the late 1880s, as the last two kids (1887 and 1888) are registered under a different surname. The family also use this surname on the 1891 (where they are split up, at three different addresses) but then all revert to their real surname on the 1901, as if they had temporarily gone into hiding then resumed normal life when the fuss had died down.

[busyglen]

Linda, I don't think you will find any records relating to a change of name. I too have a family scandal. My gt. grandmother and gt. grandfather lived together for 13 years and had 5 children, before eventually marrying in 1880 and having a few more children after that! They changed their name (temporarily) in 1871 when my grandmother was born, and she was registered in that name. A couple of years later they all reverted back to my gt. grandfathers name, and my grandmother got married under her father's name even though she was registered in another.

So....people called themselves whatever they liked, which makes it very difficult for us trying to trace them!

Glenys

[LynneP]

I have one of those as well. My great grandmother supposedly married my great grandfather. On his b.cert her maiden name is sutton.

On the 1901, she is married to a man called sutton, with one son. she was born quinell. And i cannot find a marriage to my great-grandfather (which would make her a potter), although she assumed his name.

)

[silvergirlswan]

Regarding family scandals. My grandmother married a man and had 5 children. he died aged 38 and then (so we were told) married his brother and had 4 more children,one of whom was my mother.I later found out they had never married because until 1907 it was illegal to marry your deceased husband's brother. This may have occurred in other families especially when small children were involved and the families were poor. I never told my mother about this as she would have been horrified!

[Davran]

[QUOTE=Mythology]I still chuckle over my Vicar who shacked up with his niece (his married sister's daughter)
QUOTE]

I, too, have a naughty Rev in the family. My ancestor was a much respected speaker and writer of religious bits and pieces. He even collaborated with Conan Doyle on a book, BUT .... he was quietly producing an illegitimate family (five of them if I remember rightly). I think the pressure must have got too much for him because he went off to N America on a lecture tour and never returned. He died of a heart attack in Ontario at the age of 73. I know he kept in touch with his illegitimate daughter, but I've no idea if he wrote to my side of the family.