Blog

Ask the expert – mystery surname

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

From Kim Hazell:

‘My great grandmother Elizabeth Hazell is shown in the 1901 census living with Thomas Hazell (RG13 piece 3753). How can I find out who Thomas Hazell was, as Hazell was not his real surname? It seems Elizabeth and Thomas never married and Hazell was Elizabeth’s surname, not Thomas’. Thank you.’

Stephen says:

‘Dear Kim

This is a challenging question, and one which frankly may never find an answer, and I’d like to throw it open to readers of this blog to see if anyone can come up with some creative thinking and constructive suggestions.

Some first thoughts on the various possibilities behind this rare example of a man seemingly taking his wife’s or partner’s surname at this date include the following:

1. He took her name to escape a criminal or miscreant or indebted past, e.g., deserting the army, or fleeing creditors
2. As above, but to escape a previous marriage and wife
3. Stipulations of a will
4. He came from overseas and it suited him to have an anglicised name
5. Hazell was his surname – by coincidence, or by distant kinship

If 5 above is not the case, then I think the chances of finding evidence of the change of name are quite slim. Formal changes of name by deed poll were always in a minority, perhaps five per cent of total name changes, but you could try search in the London Gazette just in case he took this course.

Sometimes death certificates record an alias or earlier name, if known to the family or other informant at death, and I’d recommend that you purchase a copy if you don’t hold it already – in my view, death certificates are under-appreciated anyway and often are interesting in their own right. The same citing of former names can also be true of marriage certificates but, of course, that won’t help you here if you know that this couple were not married. If Thomas fathered an illegitimate child by Elizabeth Hazell, then there’s an outside possibility that you might find evidence of him contributing towards maintenance of the child, e.g., in petty sessions.

If Thomas and Elizabeth Hazell had been living not around 1901 but in, say, the first decades on the 19th century, one could have considered ‘poor law’ type records: examinations, settlements and removals etc. Such records can sometimes be found with parish chest materials in local archives, particularly if the mother was from an alien parish and the parish of residence did not wish to pay to support the mother and child – although naturally this only applies if the family was needy and turned to the parish for relief.

I’d recommend that you contact the relevant county record office and enquire what records survive that may be of assistance to you. RG13 piece 3753 is for the parish of Newton Heath in Manchester, so the local archive would be the Greater Manchester Record Office, 56 Marshall Street, New Cross, Manchester, M4 5FU (phone 0161 234 1979).

Do any readers have any helpful suggestions for Kim?’

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!

Ask the expert – elusive date of death

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

From Adrian Shepard:

‘I wonder if you can help me with a question regarding finding the date of death of my great-great-great-grandfather?

My great-great-great-grandfather was Benjamin Shepard from Lymington (born in 1782). His name appears in local parish records for the birth of his children with wife Mary Ann Green (born in 1784 and died in 1856).

By the time of the first census in 1841, and also in 1851, however, he doesn’t seem to be listed again with his wife and children. I can’t find a record of his death locally in Lymington but his name and profession appear on several marriage certificates for his children.

Does that mean he was alive at the time of the children’s weddings in 1853 and 1859? Would it normally say ‘deceased’ on the marriage certificate? Many thanks for any help/advice you can give.’

Stephen says:

‘Dear Adrian,

Thanks for your question.

The answer to your question is that theoretically a marriage certificate should record if the father of a bride or groom is deceased. If the 1853 and 1859 marriage certificates in your possession are silent on this point, therefore, normally one would infer that the father was indeed still alive at those dates, unless there is evidence to the contrary.

No proof was required by the registrar, however, so the information recorded in the marriage register (and on the marriage certificate produced from it) will only ever be as good as the knowledge of the informant providing it (usually the bride or groom, as applicable). For example, in cases of family estrangement, a person getting married may not know whether his or her father is deceased and may, therefore, state that he is alive when he is not (or, conversely, that he is dead when he is not). You should, therefore, proceed tentatively upon the basis that the father Benjamin was alive in 1859 but remain alive to the possibility of him having died by that date.

If you have not done so already, you should also obtain a copy of the death certificate of his spouse Mary Ann from 1856. This should describe her as either the wife, or the widow, of Benjamin. If it states “widow”, then one would assume that he was in fact dead by 1856. If it states “wife”, however, then this could add extra weight to Benjamin being alive at that date – and of course if he was the informant at her death, that would be conclusive! Should he not have been the informant, the same reservations would apply as for the marriage certificates and the evidence is only as good as the state of knowledge of the informant at death.

I am sure that, with a last name such as Shepard, you will already have thought of searching under name variants. If not, you should definitely extend your search using the more common spellings of the last name: on findmypast.co.uk, just tick the ‘include variants’ box when doing a death search.

Having said that, there is a death for a Benjamin Shepard in Lymington registration district for the December quarter of 1853 and another in Southampton in the September quarter of 1863. Unfortunately, at this date the original death indexes that the General Register Office compiled do not give age at death (this was not introduced until March quarter 1866), although the actual death register and a death certificate issued from it will give age, and of course these entries may relate to individuals of completely different age.

Good luck with your research!’

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!