Hi folks French Canadian young women always lost their names at marriage, this rule and tradition would have been retained in Illinois. However very old women 1)sometimes died and no one knew her maiden name, only knew her husband's name.2) Perhaps he married a distant "cousine", she lost her name and took a name identical. 3) I would gather from watching the religious situation down there (I live in Quebec) at that time, that the priest may have been Irish Catholic, hence not governed by well defined church rules. Some of the Irish priests followed accepted parctices of the British Isles, naming witnesses and no mention of the parents. In the case of burials, these acts tend to be shortened when compared to a priest who studied under north American influence.4) Worse even, no one had ever seen the written maiden name as they were unable to write. These are some of the items to consider in establishing a woman's real name. Marcel Benoit bunker.books@videotron.ca or marcel.benoit@videotron.ca ---------- > From: VCrawf@aol.com > To: ILSTANNE-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: [ILSTANNE] surnames of married women > Date: February 16, 2000 4:02 PM > > > Here is a message that just came to our list from D. Walters - who joined on > just before our big change in status. > > Subj: When the French married ... question regarding names > Date: 2/16/2000 12:46:20 PM Pacific Standard Time > From: dwdwone@direct.ca (DW) > > Hi all, > > I have what is probably a simple question for all of you to answer, however > I'm new at researching my French ancestors and need some clarification. > > I have been told that when a French (Canadian) couple married in the late > 1800's that the bride maintained her maiden name and the children were given > the husbands name at birth. Was this generally true in the Kankakee area > too? > > I was searching through the death and burial records for the area online and > located someone who may be my Joseph Martin and also the name of a Lulie > Martin? I'm wondering if this is a typo and should be Julie Martin (nee > Landry). > > Any insight would be helpful. > > Sincerely > D. Walters (snip)