Surname changes

[Mike McC]

I wonder if any of the more experienced genies help out with this query, which is general rather than particular. Why should someone suddenly change their surname.

This is a question for people who have more experience in family history than I.

My Grandfather, Thomas Evans was born in Barrow-in-Furness in 1877. His name then was Thomas Anderson. (Father William, mother Jane Dennis).

The family seems to have bounced backwards and forwards between Belfast and England engaged in ship building work.

I think I have found him in the Ireland Census in 1901 living with his mother (widowed) in Pottinger Belfast. I am waiting for a birth certificate to prove that this is the same family but I am reasonably sure it his him simply using the name Anderson.

On his marriage certificate to Mary Sarah Keating in 1907 again in Barrow, he gives his name as Thomas Evans Anderson, and his father as WIlliam Evans Anderson (deceased). In the 1911 census he gives his name as Tom Evans. He is living at Saddleworth Yorkshire with his wife Sarah and two babies, one of which grew up to be my Auntie Harriet.

From that time on he sticks to Tom or Thomas Evans.

I cannot understand why he changes his name like this. On his marriage certificate he does say he is a widower, but I have not yet been able to find the first marriage.

ANy clues as to why the change of name ? Is it something to do with work ? He is a crane driver, and by 1913 has moved to Bootle where he stays till his death.

[MaryA]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I suspect you might get a few other suggestions, probably from others own experience with similar findings.

I have found that some of my ancestors have been given a middle name of the surname of a grandparent or other relative and I wonder if it was possibly in the expectation of a bequest in a Will. Once this person has died then they might not feel the need to continue using that name, however if somebody else gave the enumerator the census details, who knows which name would have been given without the knowledge of it's owner.

There's also the thought of whether a previous wife had died, or perhaps not and so a name change would help in hiding.