Our resident expert Stephen Rigden, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Ron Bowyer:

‘I have Leonard Ernest Perschky (born in Camberwell in the fourth quarter of 1910) marrying Bertha Annie Geen (born in Lambeth in the first quarter of 1918) in the fourth quarter of 1938. I have been unable to find their deaths.

I have found a Leonard Ernest Percy, born on 11 December 1910 who died in Lambeth in the first quarter of 1971 and Bertha Agnes Percy, born on 18 February 1918 and died in Southwark in August 1995. It is possible they changed their name by deed poll? Can I accept these as the same people?

I also have a Henry Sidney Perschky, born in the second quarter of 1894 in Hackney. He does not show up in any records after the 1911 census. I have found a Henry Sidney Percy, born 2 May 1894 who died in Hackney in the fourth quarter of 1872. Again, is it safe to accept him as the same person?’

Stephen says:

‘Dear Ron, thanks for your question. This looks like a very interesting family and I must confess that I had expected them to have been mid-19th century immigrants. The census returns back to 1841, however, show the whole family with London and Middlesex places of birth and solidly Anglo-Saxon names (rather than, say, Jewish or Slavic).

I would imagine that if you take research back into the 18th century, however, you will discover German roots (although not necessarily from within the borders of modern Germany – they may perhaps have been from what is today Poland or the detached Kaliningrad oblast of Russia). You will of course need to consider name variants along the way – by which I mean, as well as clerical misspellings, names rendered in different orthographies but phonetically identical, such as Perschke and Pershke.

This brings us on to your specific question. The short answer is yes: I am reasonably confident that the index entries you have found under the last name Percy relate to the Perschky births. Sometimes where there has been a formal or informal change of name, this will be recorded on the death certificate.

When this is the case, however, the General Register Office customarily indexed the entry under both the original and the assumed last name, and I assume this isn’t the case here, or you would have found the entries under Perschky. The surest way to advance research to the point of confidence and prove your assumptions would be to obtain all certificates, birth and death, to verify the matching dates.

My understanding is that changes of name by deed poll were the exception rather than the rule in the early and mid-20th century. Many people changed their name informally. Others did go through a solicitor and obtained a deed poll but did not publish it. The copies were held by the individual and the solicitor, and not registered or lodged anywhere, meaning that (unless they are held in family papers) they become untraceable.

There was (and still is) no legal requirement to enroll or lodge a deed anywhere. It is true that The National Archives has a collection of deed polls under shelf references C54 and J18, which has been accessioned from the Supreme Court, and that, from 1914 onwards, these same enrolled deeds were also published in the London Gazette (searchable online at www.london-gazette.co.uk/search). It is unlikely, however, that TNA’s collection exceeds five per cent of all name changes within the period it covers (1851 to circa 2003).

There can be various reasons underlying a change of surname. Sometimes it is for pragmatic reasons of convenience – in other words, to make the name easier for others to pronounce and to no longer have to spell it out to them. Others change their name to escape prejudice, e.g., to have a less obviously German or Jewish name, or to escape a crime or shameful incident, or to cut ties with another branch of the family with which there has been an argument. Doubtless many findmypast.co.uk users would be able to suggest other reasons for a change of name from their own researches.’

If you’d like to send your question to our experts, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Unfortunately our experts only have time to answer a few queries each month. If yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!

Our resident expert Stephen Rigden, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Jacky Leach:

‘I am trying to find out more about my granddad, Bernard Seaman. He was in the navy for most of his life and he lived in Wells next the sea, Norfolk, at 48 Mill Road. He was married to my grandmother, Barbara Dickerson. They had a daughter whose name was Audrey Seaman and a son whose name was Donald Seaman. My granddad had a lot of brothers but I don’t know their names. I would be most grateful if you would be able to find out anything about him for me.’

Stephen says:

‘Thanks for your question.

For anyone new to family history, the key thing to remember is to start with what you know and to work backwards. Don’t worry if you think you know very little. If you have English or Welsh ancestry, it is nearly always possible to research back in time from, for example, your own birth, the marriage of your parents or the death of a grandparent.

You did not give any dates in your message but, using the combination of the names and the reference to Wells next the Sea, I was able to piece together the family back to the late 1880s in the space of half an hour and I’m sure you’ll be able to re-trace my steps using the resources on findmypast.co.uk.

Firstly, I searched the indispensable website GENUKI to find out in which registration district Wells was situated. I usually do this by searching the internet for ‘GENUKI + the place name’. Alternatively, you can drill down through the county to the section on civil registration and find out there. This told me that Wells was in the Norfolk registration district of Walsingham.

Then I was able to do some searches for your grandfather and found that Bernard Seaman married Gladys Barbara Dickinson in 1931 and died in 1970. The entry for him in the death index gives his date of birth in 1903. I could then check the birth index and there found the corresponding entry. He was born in Docking registration district and married in Walsingham.

From the 1903 birth entry in Docking, I was able to find him easily on the 1911 census, which is fully name-indexed for all of England and Wales. This showed him as the sixth child of seven born to Isaac Seaman and his wife Elizabeth. His older siblings Walter, Jessie, Annie, Frederick and Redvers can be found on the relevant 1891 and 1901 census returns. The youngest sibling Charles of course appears only in the 1911 census. Frederick was the only one born in Wells; it seems that Isaac held various rural occupations and probably moved from farm to farm and from village to village in this part of Norfolk.

Equipped with this information, it was then straightforward to find the marriage of your great grandparents Isaac and Elizabeth in 1887. Her maiden surname was Flegg. Isaac was born in West Barsham and Elizabeth in Little Walsingham. Hopefully, if you re-trace my steps to recreate the above information, you will see for yourself how the basic steps in family history can be traced. Once you’ve done this, I’m confident you will then be able to apply the same methods and, for example, find Isaac on the 1871 and 1881 census returns, discover who his parents (your great-great-grandparents) were, and so on. You can do the same thing if you wish on the Flegg line of the family.

In this way, I would be surprised if, with a little digging, you were not able to get back to the first surviving nationwide census in 1841 and the start of civil registration in 1837. From there you’d need to start looking at parish registers and other resources. Filling out your family tree from 1837 to 1911, however, should keep you busy for a while! Good luck!

As for biographical information about your grandfather’s life, he would have served in the modern era in the Royal Navy (or merchant service) and, therefore, few records are public, for personal privacy and confidentiality reasons. If he was indeed in the RN, however, as his granddaughter you should be able to obtain a copy of his basic service record from Veterans UK‘.

If you’d like to send your question to our experts, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Unfortunately our experts only have time to answer a few queries each month. If yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!