On Dec 29, 2012, at 10:14 AM, Michele Lewis wrote: > Believe it or not, there is a question in all of this. When my uncle got > married, he gave a false name. His wife took that false name as her own (I > assume she knew it was false considering all of his siblings had a different > last name and his parents had only been married to each other). Their child > is also named this false name. LEGALLY, what does it all mean? Is the > wife's legal name really the false name or is it my uncle's real last name? > What about the child? I have a similar circumstance in my family. My grandfather changed his name c. 1914 in Chicago, Cook County, IL apparently without legal papers being filed (I've searched to no avail). His origin surname was Alfred Petersen; all his ten siblings remained Petersen. In 1914 he married in Chicago as Alva McLaughlin and his wife took that surname. His first son, my dad, was born Thomas Petersen-McLaughlin in 1916. The surname was further refined to McLaughlan and then MacLaughlan. Petersen was dropped. Cook County didn't require birth certificates until after 1916. In order to apply for a passport in 1965 my dad supplied his baptism certificate, which had the hybrid form of his surname: http://sakionline.net/familypage/tombirth.jpg Somehow it was accepted legally by the U.S. State Department as proof of Thomas William MacLaughlan's U.S. birth despite the name discrepancy. "Legal" names had a more fluid definition in previous times. It wash't a question of what was false but what was regularly used in the family. Best, Debra MacLaughlan Dumes http://sakionline.net/familypage

Very interesting, Debra! Michele I have a similar circumstance in my family. My grandfather changed his name c. 1914 in Chicago, Cook County, IL apparently without legal papers being filed (I've searched to no avail). His origin surname was Alfred Petersen; all his ten siblings remained Petersen. In 1914 he married in Chicago as Alva McLaughlin and his wife took that surname. His first son, my dad, was born Thomas Petersen-McLaughlin in 1916. The surname was further refined to McLaughlan and then MacLaughlan. Petersen was dropped. Cook County didn't require birth certificates until after 1916. In order to apply for a passport in 1965 my dad supplied his baptism certificate, which had the hybrid form of his surname: http://sakionline.net/familypage/tombirth.jpg Somehow it was accepted legally by the U.S. State Department as proof of Thomas William MacLaughlan's U.S. birth despite the name discrepancy. "Legal" names had a more fluid definition in previous times. It wash't a question of what was false but what was regularly used in the family. Best, Debra MacLaughlan Dumes http://sakionline.net/familypage The Transitional Genealogists List was created to provide a supportive environment for genealogists to learn best practices as they transition to professional level work. Please respect the kind intentions of this list. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to TRANSITIONAL-GENEALOGISTS-FORUM-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message