An ancestor of mine appears to have changed his surname in the 1860s, probably for professional reasons (he was an opera singer). His children's births were registered under the new surname. Would he have had to do this officially (e.g. by deed poll)? If so where can I find the details? Ian

In message of 19 Jun, Ian Edwards <tafwys@yahoo.co.uk> wrote: > > An ancestor of mine appears to have changed his surname in the 1860s, > probably for professional reasons (he was an opera singer). His > children's births were registered under the new surname. > Would he have had to do this officially (e.g. by deed poll)? No. In English law, you can call yourself by whatever surname you like as long as you don't set up a fraud. A great uncle of mine married a lady who had a stage name but she married (and to her second husband) in her real name. So your ancestor may not have changed his real name at all. > If so where can I find the details? Not necessarily anywhere. My paternal grandfather and his father both changed their name by deed poll but twenty years apart. In both cases their solicitors put a notice in The Times, but there was no need to do this. I suspect the need for the deep poll was to provide a piece of paper to send round to change the name on any assets they owned - insurance policies, properties, stocks and shares, etc. Certainly the deed poll bits of paper are now completely lost. Anyhow I am fairly sure you can access The Times for nothing in the SoG library. Some public libraries also have subscribed to do this. But if your ancestor put any announcement in another paper, then you may have a bit of a problem finding it. -- Tim Powys-Lybbe                                          tim@powys.org              For a miscellany of bygones: http://powys.org