I know there are a ton of websites out there but they all cost to get that info. Anything for free? Thanks!
2007-10-31 12:14:42 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Genealogy
I haven't found anything that's free. But, I consider the $19.99 that some companies like USASearch charge, cheap. It's only 20 bucks, and if it gives you peace of mind it's worth it.
I have used the USASearch (and other sites') teaser pages to actually extract useful information about several people, though. Type in a name and a location and look at the example names they come up with. Sometimes there will be clues like ages and past places they have lived that will give you some useful info.
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2007-10-31 12:20:15 · answer #1 · answered by tlbs101 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Legal names changes are a fairly recent invention. I would suspect it would be very difficult to find such records online. You would most likely have to check the county/state offices in person to find out.
But there are many, many other reasons a person may have had a different name in the past.
The most obvious, even to this day, is a woman changing her surname at marriage, and possibly reverting to maiden name if there were a divorce.
But if you start getting back into the early 1900s and before, I can guarantee that you will encounter different names for many individuals.
Being able to read and write wasn't that common not so long ago. And while people most assuredly had their name, they didn't particularly care much (or sometimes know) about the spelling. And legal documents were normally filled in by a semi-illiterate clerk as well who was making their best guess at the surname spelling (and first name for that matter) of the person (who sometimes was speaking with an accent which made the task even more difficult).
Immigrants often changed their names either at immigration or soon thereafter to be more conventional with the country to which they immigrated. And there is always the infamous Ellis Island shuffle - somewhere between the ship manifest being filled in, and Ellis Island issuing the papers, names got really mangled quite often.
How do you find out? Really, just detective work, being aware of common surname manglings that occur for a given name. There really is no web site that is going to tell you that Felini Styzholt changed his name to Felix Stuckhold (or in the case of my wife's great-grandfather, changed Felini Styzholt to Felix Gouled - he was trying to change to Goulet but there was a victim of the Ellis Island Shuffle).
2007-10-31 19:34:50 · answer #2 · answered by Mind Bender 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Yea.By Asking The Person!
2007-10-31 19:21:41 · answer #3 · answered by MrKnowItAll 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
go to the Bureau of Vital Statistics in the city where the person was born. They maintain all records from birth to death.
2007-10-31 19:22:58 · answer #4 · answered by Mike 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
when ever somone changes there name is has to go in to this paper so that all creditors etc....will know ...dam i forgot the name of this paper
2007-10-31 19:23:15 · answer #5 · answered by siatajamie 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
yes, It might prove a bit difficult but....just ask them!
2007-10-31 19:17:47 · answer #6 · answered by DEERnHeadlights 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Go to http://oursutherlands.proboards78.com and post your query there, and I will look into it for you.
2007-10-31 19:19:28 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋