Hi Cliff, My father always used his middle name rather than his first.... and when my brother...named after Dad....was of legal age he changed his middle name legally to his first name. Both given names were family names and both were unusual to some extent. When I sent for Dad's WWI draft card I saw that he had used his first and middle names correctly.....and when I gave info for his death certificate I did the same. I have no idea what my brother's (at the time) girlfriend put on his because she and our family were not close (and that's being charitable LOL). Maureen ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cliff Lamere" <clifflamere@nycap.rr.com> To: <NYWESTCH-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, January 29, 2007 4:08 AM Subject: [NYWESTCH] Middle names >I have transcribed a great number of census families for a book I'm > writing. Gradually, I became more and more aware that the people in the > census often did not use their given name, but rather were going by > their middle name instead. Today, I found a child Minerva listed only > as H.M. in an earlier census. It appears that she was using her middle > name later. > > It is not unusual to find a child listed with one name, but on the next > census the child has a different name. The ages and the order of the > children can be used to assure youself that they are both the same child. > > I remember a man who was listed with given and middle name. His son had > the two names reversed. After the son left the household, the son took > the same name that his father had. And the father then either reversed > the order of the two names or just used the earlier middle name (I don't > recall which). Sometimes the men were listed with just a single name. > The situation was complex, but I finally figured it out. These two men > may actually have had identical given and middle names, but I will > probably never know. > > A woman might be listed as Mary A., then later as Anne Marie or just Ann > (or even Hannah). > > Sometimes the middle initial of a married woman is actually the first > initial of her maiden name. One has to be aware of that. Therefore, a > woman might be found as Adaline C. Smith one time, but Adaline A. Smith > another time. Both may be correct if you knew the maiden name. > > Informants on a death certificate may not know all of the information > for which they are asked. This is especially true of second spouses. > For example, by the time of the second marriage the parents of their > husband or wife may be deceased. They didn't meet them and in > conversation may never have heard the mother's maiden name, or the > places of birth. > > When it comes to a name, the name the informant had heard may have been > the person's middle name. Or, we may have only found records of the the > person using their middle name, whereas the informant gave their true > given name for the certificate. > > Cliff Lamere > > > > *************************************** > Have you checked out the Westchester County GenWeb site yet? > http://www.rootsweb.com/~nywestch/ > *************************************** > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > NYWESTCH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message