I was married in 1968 and advised, though I can't recall by whom, to drop my middle name and use my maiden name as my middle name, which I did and still do. Also interesting: I have women in my family who married more than once and used their maiden names on marriage licenses numbers 2, 3 and 4 in the 19th century, making them easy to trace. I wish my 20th century ancestors who married more than once had done the same. Merle -----Original Message----- From: seekay@comcast.net To: philly-roots@rootsweb.com Sent: Mon, 12 Feb 2007 3:53 PM Subject: Re: [Phly-Rts] Maiden names Susan, I see it all the time informally (e.g., cousins who are always referred to by their maiden name), but not usually formally (e.g., the headstone). Many times it's because there are many others of the same first name in the family, and I've seen it in Ireland, too, so it's not a Philadelphia thing. I even see it a lot (impliedly) on US census records, where it turns out the woman's middle initial is actually the initial of her maiden name -- and in those cases, it's not always an Irish woman. Maybe it's just that women used their maiden names more than we thought? In my own family, I've seen it as far back as someone born (in the US of Irish descent) in the 1860s who was always known by her maiden name within the family. It sure is helpful when doing genealogy, as long as you find someone with a long memory! ;-) Claire K. On Feb 12, 2007, at 3:35 PM, Susan Regan wrote: > My gr.gr. grandmother and her sister always used their maiden names > along with their married ones like some women today. They were > Irish immigrants that settled in Philly in the 1870s and 1880s. > Their names are even listed that way on their headstones (Annie > Martin Daley and Margaret Martin Wymer). I haven't found that to > be typical. Any clues to why they might have done that? > Thanks, > Susan Regan ********* Visit the threaded archives of this list: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/PHILLY-ROOTS ********* ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PHILLY-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ________________________________________________________________________ Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more.