Re: Legal Surname Changes
- From: Martin Brown <|||newspam|||@nezumi.demon.co.uk>
- Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2007 01:44:03 -0800 (PST)
On Nov 14, 3:08 am, "A. Gwilliam" <freder...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On Nov 14, 12:29 am, Genetracer <delawareb...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
If the person or their family was either rich, related to someone else
who was rich, or they were otherwise "well-connected", then they might
have obtained a royal warrant for the change of name; details of these
(for England) should be in the London Gazette, past copies of which
you can search and read online for free athttp://www.gazettes-online.co.uk,
and I think there would probably be a notice in national newspapers
such as The Times.
More probably a change of name would have been recorded by deed poll,
which would probably have been arranged with a solicitor. You could
try searching for details of this in the London Gazette, national
newspapers, and the local newspaper. If your chap's family were the
sort of people to have a family solicitor, for example, then a deed
poll is probably a reasonable bet.
Most probably of all, however, there is (and never has been) any
record of a change of name.
It is certainly worth a look in the London Gazette - and much easier
now it is indexed online. Rare names give a high chance of finding it
if it is there. Thomas Brown or John Smith is still like a needle in a
haystack unless they changed it to something suitably obscure.
Also worth searching on your favourite family names for notices,
weddings, obituaries or articles in the Times online during USA
"library week" free access which these days lasts a month. Sometimes
even minor provincial characters can end up in the newspapers. Same
for various local rags although few of them are searchable online. I
have also had some luck with searching New Zealand and Australian
newspapers online for name related stuff. It is to some extent a
matter of luck whether you find any formal notices - too many name
changes were informal.
Regards,
Martin Brown
.
- References:
- Legal Surname Changes
- From: Genetracer
- Re: Legal Surname Changes
- From: A. Gwilliam
- Legal Surname Changes
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