This has been the tradition in Japan for many years, growing less common now. Gloria On Jul 19, 2011, at 12:38 PM, Marsha Ensminger wrote: > Or, if a family had no sons, a son-in-law would be picked to take > over; he would adopt the surname, which his sons and their > descendants used. There's at least one family in my ancestry where > this happened every couple of generations for a while. > > Marsha L. Ensminger > > >> >>