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