Sorry I'm a bit late with this. My grandfather, George Henry SHAW, was born in Borrowash on 9th November 1886. I traced his parents Jonathan and Hannah (nee Brindley) on the 1881 and 1871 censuses but couldn't find Jonathan SHAW, or his father of the same name, prior to that. After much searching of censuses and bmds I decided to follow the line of Jonathan (junior's) sister. Having found her on the 1861 census I noticed that the entry immediately above was for a family called HALL. The first names and ages matched the SHAWs I was looking for. I found the appropriate births and marriages and discovered that, for reasons unknown, the family, over a period of time between 1849 and 1861, depending on which birth or census record you look at, changed their name from HALL to SHAW. Jonathan senior, my gggrandfather, was born as HALL, but died as a SHAW in 1868. The link with SHAW is that this was his mother's maiden name. Incidentally, Jonathan was the first person to be buried in the then new Borrowash cemetery. We have the reason why SHAW was chosen as a new surname, but why do it in the first place? The family don't appear to have been rich, so I don't think they did it on the promise of money from the SHAW side of the family. At the time of his death, Jonathan was a cotton factory overlooker. There can't have been a scandal as they didn't move house, so presumably just told the neighbours that they were changing their name. Also, why did they call themselves HALL and SHAW intermittently over a period of 12 years? I mentioned this on the group a few years ago but as members have come and gone over time I thought I'd mention it again. No conclusions were reached then so any thoughts on the matter would be much appreciated. Dave Fleetwood