Hi Angela Sorry for the late reply to this one - I've been having problems with my emails. Both my mother and my mother-in-law had double barrelled maiden names, so I've had plenty of practice at finding them ;-) They are rarely shown correctly in census returns. In most cases they are recorded by the latter name, with the first part shown as a middle name or initial. For example, my great grandfather, William Charles WEBBER-TAYLOR, appears in every census from 1881 to 1901 with the surname TAYLOR and sometimes with a middle initial of W. From this you might conclude that they simply used the Webber as a middle name and were known as Mr and Mrs Taylor. However, if you look for his birth in 1st quarter of 1874, you'll find him listed under the surname of 'Webber-Taylor'. Interestingly, his grandparents' deaths also show the full surname in 1891/2 so even those married into the family were adopting the Webber part too. Perhaps the difference between the census and BMDs are because the census enumerator assumed the Webber part was a middle name. If you enter a hyphenated surname into the 1911 census search page, you may already have found that the hyphen is removed when you click on 'search'. This was a real nuisance when the surname field was mandatory in the first few weeks, as it made it impossible to find some surnames. I had quite a drawn out correspondence with their help desk about this, and they finally admitted that this was a fault and they'd look into sorting it out - looks like they're still looking ;-) Now that they've added the wild card option, and the surname is no longer mandatory, there are ways around it, otherwise I'd be getting a bit fed up by now. Needless to say, I've been intrigued to find out why/how my lines came to have a double barrelled surname, especially as the Webber-Taylors come from ordinary Somerset labouring stock. I kept expecting to find the Webber appear as a maiden name as I progressed back, but no such luck. The only possible link is that my 4g grandmother (who was illegitimate) named her son Abraham Webber Taylor a year after her mother married an Abraham WEBBER. Of course by mentioning this link, I'm playing right into the hands of those who think that these surnames arose through snobbery - I can only say that my grandfather was the humblest and kindest person I have ever met. If you haven't yet found your ancestor Angela, let me know their details off list, and I'll have a go looking for them too. Best wishes Kate over the Exe from you :-) -----Original Message----- From: isle-of-wight-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:isle-of-wight-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Paul Mason Sent: 22 September 2009 18:58 To: FHS, massages Subject: [IoW] Double barrel name Hello, Is there a special method to find double barrelled names on a census. I have so far been unable to find a family I know to have been on that census. I have tried many combinations and wonder if anyone has a tip to help Regards Angela ************************************** You can contact the Isle of Wight List Administrator by emailing: Isle-of-Wight-Admin@rootsweb.com ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ISLE-OF-WIGHT-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message