MISS ADELINE MARTIN wrote: > Hello > > Can anyone tell me where I can find a record of a legal name change > if there was one. > > I have a Charles George Gray Somors Illegitimate son of Catherine > Somors born in Edinburgh on April 28,1876. In the 1881 census he is > living with his grandparents in Kelso under the name of Charles > S.Gray.In the 1891 census he is listed as Charles Summers.I have not > been able to track him for a number of years until a few days ago I > found that he joined the Canadian Army on Dec.6,1915 and he was > married to a Mary ?. I now have a marriage Reg. from Scotlandspeople > 1906 for a Charles John Summers with his parents being John Summers > (his Grandfather's name) and Catherine Summers ms Martin,(his > Grandmothers name was Rose Summers ms Martin) married to a Mary > Kennedy.His Occupation was the same as in his Army join-up papers so > I am sure that I have the right marriage. I am trying to find out if > he had to legally change the George part of his name and also the > spelling of his Surname to get a passport go to Canada. I'm afraid there will be no record of any "legal name change" because under Scots Law, you can call yourself whatever you like - there is no equivalent to the English system of formal name-change by "deed-poll". By convention, illegitimate children would take the surname of the father if paternity had been acknowledged, and would take the surname of the mother if the father was unknown or had denied paternity. However, it was quite common for illegitimate children, later in life, to adopt the surname of the reputed father, with or without his blessing. It was also quite common for people to spell their names in a variety of ways, so a change from SOMORS to SUMMERS would not in itself be significant - although the variation in forenames would have me wondering whether there were actually two people with similar names. Have you tried looking for Charles John SUMMERS in the 1891 Census? Because if he appears, he can't be the same person as Charles George Gray SOMORS. The question of a passport is unlikely to have arisen in 1915 - Canada was part of the Empire, so British Subjects could go there without one. Gavin Bell