Use of maiden name instead of married name in 1800s?
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Use of maiden name instead of married name in 1800s?
Does anyone know if it was usual (the norm) for married women to be known by their maiden names after they got married. I have not come across this myself but it was mentioned to me recently that this was the case. And if so, why would women have done this? Thanks.
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smcarberry
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- Location: USA
Re: Use of maiden name instead of married name in 1800s?
I have waited for more than 30 people to read your inquiry before I respond. I don't have much to say but I have heard that culturally there was a lower inhibition against Irish women using their maiden names than is the case with other nationalities.
I cannot think of a specific example that I might have encountered to support that, although when I finally locate my
Carberry widow in the 1861 Montreal census I will know whether she continued to be known as Carberry five years after the
death of her husband or whether she is recorded under her maiden name. The city directories that I have for each year after
the documented death of her husband in 1855 show no one that could be the widow under her married name, yet there is a good possibility under her maiden name.
I have also heard that Italian immigrant women in the 1800s could well be on ship lists under their maiden names when they travel separately from their husbands. As for Luxembourg women, I can report that my ancestral family from that country is shown arriving in New York under two surnames: the husband and three children are shown under the husband's surname and the wife is shown with her maiden name, all on the same boat and without any doubt. The year was 1845, and this family was very much intact then and until death entered the picture decades later.
Sharon Carberry USA
I cannot think of a specific example that I might have encountered to support that, although when I finally locate my
Carberry widow in the 1861 Montreal census I will know whether she continued to be known as Carberry five years after the
death of her husband or whether she is recorded under her maiden name. The city directories that I have for each year after
the documented death of her husband in 1855 show no one that could be the widow under her married name, yet there is a good possibility under her maiden name.
I have also heard that Italian immigrant women in the 1800s could well be on ship lists under their maiden names when they travel separately from their husbands. As for Luxembourg women, I can report that my ancestral family from that country is shown arriving in New York under two surnames: the husband and three children are shown under the husband's surname and the wife is shown with her maiden name, all on the same boat and without any doubt. The year was 1845, and this family was very much intact then and until death entered the picture decades later.
Sharon Carberry USA
Re: Use of maiden name instead of married name in 1800s?
I don't know how helpful this observation will be, but I distinctly remember my mother always being referred to by her maiden name by my father's siblings. She in turn always referred to her brothers' wives by their maiden names.
Re: Use of maiden name instead of married name in 1800s?
I notice in some of the Graveyard Transcription on the library website (http://foto.clarelibrary.ie/fotoweb/Gri ... iveId=5001) that, occasionally, women who died in the 1800s give their married name as their alias, rather than their own name, e.g. this one in Killone Abbey Graveyard: IHS | Beneath this | tomb lies the | remains of Johanna | Lillis alias Kelly who | dept this life ? 1838 | aged 67 yrs. Erected by her | husband Dan Kelly of | Rockmount for him & | posterity. May she rest | in peace Amen
Sadhbh
Sadhbh
Re: Use of maiden name instead of married name in 1800s?
Thanks for those replies. I have a widow at Griffiths who was sub-leasing from her son (in which case she was using her maiden name). Becasue the surname was different to his, and she had not remarried, I had wondered if she was, in fact, his grandmother (his mothers' mother), but it now appears that she may be his mother after all.
Re: Use of maiden name instead of married name in 1800s?
I think "officially" women would use their married names for records unless they had a very good reason for not doing so! I think it was pretty common for women "unofficially" to sometimes be known by their maiden names in their locality.
I guess this could have been for a number of reasons either they got married late in life or also neighbours wanted to distinguish them from other women in their husbands family who may have had the same name.
I guess this could have been for a number of reasons either they got married late in life or also neighbours wanted to distinguish them from other women in their husbands family who may have had the same name.