One of my uncles was quite a rogue in his youth. He got mad at my grandparents back in the late 70s so he changed his surname to one he made up. It isn't a real surname. It sounds like an American Indian name and very romantic sounding but is isn't a legitimate surname :) He also changed his first name though that wasn't a dramatic change and people who knew his given name would have just thought it was a shortened nickname. He later turned his life around, got married, went to college and became a teacher. His wife took the same last name. Apparently when they got married he didn't have to actually prove that was his legal name. They had one daughter and her birth certificate has this same name on it. This daughter got married and her husband took HER surname (I can't blame him. It is really a cool name). My uncle ended up writing two nationally published middle school textbooks under his assumed name. It is funny to me when I see his books on Amazon! Here is the interesting part. None of the extended family had no idea he had done any of this. Everyone would see him at reunions and such and they had no clue he had been living under a totally different name for over 40 years! No one had a clue that his wife and child were living under this same new name. Everyone thought their last name was the uncle's birth surname. Guess how everyone figured it out. Facebook. My uncle is not on Facebook but his daughter is. Myself and the other genealogists in the family routinely comb Facebook for possible kin. The daughter has an older half brother (from my uncle's first marriage) that has the correct surname. The daughter has an unusual first name so when I was looking at the list of friends for my cousin (the older half brother) I saw a girl with this unusual first name but with this cool Indian sounding last name. I knew it was my cousin but I wrongly assumed she had married someone with that cool last name and that is how she ended up with it. When I went to her page I saw her mother (my uncle's wife) with that same last name so then I realized something was wrong. That is when I tracked down the birth certificate for the daughter (Texas is very generous with their records) and it shows my uncle and his wife with this unusual last name. When I went to the daughter's friend page, I found her husband and then looked at his page. Both of his parents were listed (and they had been married forever) and they had a different last name so he had dropped his ordinary last name and took his wife's cool name. I called my other uncle (the oldest of the siblings) and asked him about it. That is when he related the story to me and told me that no one in the family knew any of this, including my own father (2nd oldest child and just older than the man in question). I thought the whole thing was absolutely fascinating. 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? Michele

Michele Do you have reason to believe that at no time he legally changed his name? I don't know the state where this happened, but the "rule of thumb" *used to be* that you could use any name you wanted, as long as you weren't out to defraud someone. Not anymore. In recent times, I have found that if you want a drivers license, passport, or now, just about any old thing, you have to have some "proof" that you are who you say you are. I would be somewhat surprised that after all these years, that did not happen. Social Security comes to mind. I do have to chuckle, though. What did he talk about at those reunions? Or, was he the best listener there? Pat Dunford -----Original Message----- From: transitional-genealogists-forum-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:transitional-genealogists-forum-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Michele Lewis Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2012 11:14 AM To: TGF Mailing List Subject: [TGF] A weird name scenario One of my uncles was quite a rogue in his youth. He got mad at my grandparents back in the late 70s so he changed his surname to one he made up. It isn't a real surname. It sounds like an American Indian name and very romantic sounding but is isn't a legitimate surname :) . . . . 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? Michele

Whether or not his name was changed legally, it seems to me it is everyone else's legal name. Presumably his wife went through the normal processes when they got married; there is no law that I know of that requires a wife to adopt his name, her maiden name, or any other name -- if she changed hers to his new name, then that's her legal name. Same for the kids; that's the name that was given to them when they were born, and again I don't know of any law that absolutely requires their name to be the same as their parents' (it's certainly a nice convenience, though!). Dave Liesse Skingco Services, LLC On 12/29/2012 10:14, Michele Lewis wrote: > One of my uncles was quite a rogue in his youth. He got mad at my > grandparents back in the late 70s so he changed his surname to one he made > up. It isn't a real surname. It sounds like an American Indian name and > very romantic sounding but is isn't a legitimate surname :) He also > changed his first name though that wasn't a dramatic change and people who > knew his given name would have just thought it was a shortened nickname. He > later turned his life around, got married, went to college and became a > teacher. His wife took the same last name. Apparently when they got > married he didn't have to actually prove that was his legal name. They had > one daughter and her birth certificate has this same name on it. This > daughter got married and her husband took HER surname (I can't blame him. > It is really a cool name). My uncle ended up writing two nationally > published middle school textbooks under his assumed name. It is funny to me > when I see his books on Amazon! > > Here is the interesting part. None of the extended family had no idea he > had done any of this. Everyone would see him at reunions and such and they > had no clue he had been living under a totally different name for over 40 > years! No one had a clue that his wife and child were living under this same > new name. Everyone thought their last name was the uncle's birth surname. > Guess how everyone figured it out. Facebook. My uncle is not on Facebook > but his daughter is. Myself and the other genealogists in the family > routinely comb Facebook for possible kin. The daughter has an older half > brother (from my uncle's first marriage) that has the correct surname. The > daughter has an unusual first name so when I was looking at the list of > friends for my cousin (the older half brother) I saw a girl with this > unusual first name but with this cool Indian sounding last name. I knew it > was my cousin but I wrongly assumed she had married someone with that cool > last name and that is how she ended up with it. When I went to her page I > saw her mother (my uncle's wife) with that same last name so then I realized > something was wrong. > > That is when I tracked down the birth certificate for the daughter (Texas > is very generous with their records) and it shows my uncle and his wife with > this unusual last name. When I went to the daughter's friend page, I found > her husband and then looked at his page. Both of his parents were listed > (and they had been married forever) and they had a different last name so he > had dropped his ordinary last name and took his wife's cool name. > > I called my other uncle (the oldest of the siblings) and asked him about it. > That is when he related the story to me and told me that no one in the > family knew any of this, including my own father (2nd oldest child and just > older than the man in question). I thought the whole thing was absolutely > fascinating. > > 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? > > Michele > > 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 >