Hi Ros, Given your grandmother claimed to have been married in Scotland, she quite possibly may have been. The Scottish irregular marriage was still legal until 1939. All she and her husband had to do was declare in front of witnesses or else live together as if married. The other option was co-habitation with repute ie they were reputedly married. They may not have been living there but may have eloped or just gone there to take advantage of the different laws in Scotland. It's not likely if she was English & lived in England but something you might want to consider Regards, Glenys > ------------------------------ > > Message: 4 > Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 18:37:48 +0000 > From: Nivard Ovington <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [LON] Change of name in the 1920s > To: [email protected] > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed > > Hi Ros > > Taking or using another name is entirely legal unless it is to deceive > > My guess would be she used another name but did nothing to change it > officially > > There would be few things that might cause a problem back then and once > accepted she could live her whole life under the other name > > Name change by deed poll was only taken up by a few comparatively, and > even fewer registered that change > > Deed polls were a semi private affair, there is no central list or index > of them, about the only way of finding one is if they registered the > change (London Gazette) or announced the change in one or other newspaper > > Unless you find evidence to the contrary I suspect she used the marriage > in Edinburgh to cover the fact they were not married > > Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) > > On 23/01/2015 18:21, Ros Poulson via wrote: >> I wonder if anyone can help me with a problem with my grandmother. She >> claims to have married in 1924 in Edinburgh when both she (and we think >> her "husband") lived in Darlington. There is no trace of the marriage in >> the records. We only have the information about it from a job application >> she completed. Her "husband" apparently died sometime in the 1930s having >> had 3 children with her, the last one n 1933. I am struggling to work out >> who he was as we only have his name and no-one fits what we know of him. >> Her family were unaware of any marriage but she does seem to have left >> the family home in the early 1920s and had no contact with them until the >> 1960s when my grandmother had a major stroke and my uncle sought out her >> sister. >> >> My question is whether she might have changed her name without ever >> marrying, perhaps because he was already married, or because there is >> no-one of the name she took. I have read the information the National >> Archives publishes and it is clear from that that unofficial name changes >> are quite common. However, my grandmother worked in the civil service and >> the marriage details are on the job application she completed for that. >> Is is realistic to think she could have given false details in getting >> that job in the 1930s? And then could she have used an unoffically >> adopted name until she died in 1975? I suppose if she was employed in >> that name then her salary and pension would be in that name. I am >> struggling to think how she did it but perhaps that is because proof of >> identity is such a thing now. >> >> I should say I haven't been able to go to Kew yet to see if there is any >> record of a a change of name by deed poll. I'm really interested in any >> views people have on how likely it is she just started to use his name >> and did so for the rest of her life without it seeminly ever causing her >> any problems. >> >> Ros Poulson > > > ------------------------------ > > To contact the LONDON list administrator, send an email to > [email protected] > > To post a message to the LONDON mailing list, send an email to > [email protected] > > __________________________________________________________ > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] > with the word "unsubscribe" without the quotes in the subject and the body > of the > email with no additional text. > > > End of LONDON Digest, Vol 10, Issue 7 > *************************************