Hi Julia I havent been able to verify the 1761 Callington burial you mention (the OPC has COAD) or the 1540 Liskeard marriage (this seems extraordinarily early). Any clues as to where to find them? The ALIASing was particularly prevalent in Cornwall in the 1500s, and as the article says - much of it was due to the continued usage of patronymics into the mid 1500s. In virtually all the Cornish ALIASes I have seen, one or both of the aliased surnames was a patronymic. One interesting example was CODE als HUMPHREY of Constantine which ran for 3-4 generations before they all reverted to HUMPHREY. I have speculated it occurred when Aves RICHARD, widow of Humfry Richard, remarried Robert CODE in 1574, and her son who had gone by the patronymic name of Thomas Humphry added the Code as an alias. Another possibility is a base birth - an extraordinarily high proportion of births in Constantine around 1600 were illegitimate. We also had an example of a double patronymic in Penwith, cant find it but I recall something like John Thomas Maddern, viz John the son of Thomas and grandson of Maddern, which got converted into John Thomas als Maddern in the 1580s before they finally settled on Maddern, The CODE alias LAWRENCE thing is particularly odd as they pop out of nowhere. I have Sampson who has one son in South Hill ,William Lawrence 1693-1757, and another Sampson Code als Lawrence 1697-1754. Sampson jr christens his 7 kids Lawrence, while William christens his eldest "Code als Lawrence" 1720. After that they are all Lawrence. Far off in Stoke Gabriel Devon we have Philip Lawrance als Coed born to John in 1610, but on the same day he baptises another son plain COED, and a few years later another one CODD. It's hard to make much sense out of this. JF ----- Original Message ----- . From: <hainesc@msu.edu> To: <cornish@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, November 11, 2012 7:32 AM Subject: Re: [CORNISH] FW: Use of "Alias" (als) in Cornwall > In Cornwall, use of surname aliases occurred most frequently in the > period when use of surnames was being established - the 1460's to > 1600's. By the 1500's, the practice of using alias surnames in > Cornwall was sufficiently established for them to be recorded in > official documents, as evidenced by frequent mentions in various > registers -especially those of Breage - wills, and manorial court > documents. One of the earliest uses of aliases in Cornwall was a > marriage in Liskeard in 1540 for Thomas LAWRENCE alias CODE. The last > mention in this line appeared in 1761, in Callington, recording the > death of Margaret LAWRENCE alias CODE. For this family, use of the > alias was worthwhile for 221 years. >