Wives taking their husband's names upon marriage.

[Montauk6]

[fudge stripe cookays]

1. Well, I voted number 1,

but historically, it becomes a bitch to find you genealogically!

I have just established a huge unknown connection (applause please) between my Smiths to a huge Weaver family based on a will that mentioned not only this woman, but her son. Fortunately, this grandson was given an unusual name.

The daughter's name was Katherine Smith. Without this will, no one would ever have known what happened to her. On the other end, her descendant family knew her name, but could go back no further because they had no idea where to start looking for her family.

I'm headed to New York at the end of the month to try to make some more progress. This is the Mother Ship town. Wish me luck! :hi:

[sybylla]

2. Taking a husband's name only is a prohibited practice in my house

I did it because I didn't particularly like my maiden name. After 20 years of searching my family and seeing that my only deadends are women, I wish I had at least hyphenated or made it my middle name.

Even with modern record keeping, I've told my boys that they are not to let their wives give up their names when they marry. They can make their own decisions about whether to hypenate, but their maiden names will stay with them somehow. It's one of the two rules if they want to see an inheritance. The other is to marry a liberal.