i am searching my family tree on my grandmothers birth cert a woman has a different name to her supposed mum?

Question

has any one ever heard of what used to be known as sunday best names

Answer 1

yes, but i think you will find the name on the certificate to be the correct 'birth' name and the one you need to trace your tree, good luck with this!

Answer 2

It's quite possible that your grandparent remarried. I have come across this twice when researching family history for different people. It is quite common on the census forms for names to get changed, if the enumerator misheard what was being told to him or the person giving the information wasn't educated as was really very common in those days. I came across it last year when the surname I was researching was totally changed between 1841- 1851, it makes it quite hard to know whether you have the right person.

Answer 3

There can be a number of surprises in genealogy research. For instance a mother dies, the father remarries, and the tiniest one/s forget that the woman who raised them as their mother wasn't their birth mother. Forget - or nobody asks them 50 or 70 years later.

Answer 4

In regards to your Sunday best names I think I can best explain it by using my grandaughter as an example.

Everyone calls her Bunny B******. Her Sunday best name (the name on her birth certificate) is Alexandria Jacqueline B******

Another example would be myself - Everyone I know thinks that my name is Nell. . .very few people know that my name is really Kathleen (my sunday best name)

Answer 5

Is it possible that you have a certificate for a different woman who happened to share your grandmother's name? Try another search and perhaps different corroborative evidence.

Answer 6

my uncle did a bunch of that... look at old photographs/ paintings...find out about aunts and uncles... it will take some detective work.