Wrong Surname

[John Dancy]

The 1891, 1901 and 1911 censuses all have the Moulden Family listed in Leicester. Parents and up to ten children. I had difficulty finding their births on GRO but there is always a way.
James Moulden Colton (birth registered as James Moulding Colton) married Harriet Dayman in 1886. They had ten children. Children one to nine were registered with Colton as their surname (that wasn't easy working out) , with three having Moulden as a second name, the last had Moulden as their surname. James's father was George Moulden and mother Elizabeth Deakin.
Do I enter them on Lost Cousins as shown on the census and correct their surnames to Colton?

 

[peter]

All that really matters is what the census says - for the 1911 Census enter what the householder wrote on the form.

However, if they are recorded on the census with a different surname from the one that others might expect, completing the 'Corrected surname' box will help your cousins find them (if they make use of the Index of Incorrect Surnames)..

 

[John Dancy]

Thanks Peter. So now I have another family member. She married in 1858 and had 4 children, her husband dying in 1865 shortly before the birth of the fourth. But she had another five children between then and 1880 with her dead husband as father of three of them (the others maiden name blank) A quagmire for family historians ?

 

[Helen7]

But she had another five children between then and 1880 with her dead husband as father of three of them (the others maiden name blank)

Do you mean her dead husband was named as the father on these three children's birth certificates? Or just that they bore his surname, which would be her surname as his widow and therefore passed onto her later children in the absence of a father.

I have a case in my family where a widow went on to have illegitimate children years after her husband died, but they still carried his surname (also being her married surname).

 

[John Dancy]

I haven't seen the certificates, at seventh or eight cousin line they are a trifle distant, but GRO has three with the mother's maiden name as though father was still alive and two have the maiden name blank. In the censuses she is a widow.
I would have expected your version, with her married name as surname and no mother's name.

 

[Helen7]

I would have expected your version, with her married name as surname and no mother's name.

Unless there was a father on the scene to 'claim' the child, I would expect the surname of the child to be the mother's married surname and the mother's name to be her maiden name.

The case I quoted above was my direct ancestor so I had more of an interest in tracing her convoluted history, including two marriages - with children from both of them - followed by twins born 5 years after her second husband died.

 

[John Dancy]

Maybe the Registry clerk didn't know how to handle it, apart from "oh no, not you again" ??

 

[peter]

at seventh or eight cousin line they are a trifle distant

I don't think you mean 7th or 8th cousin, surely? Perhaps 3rd or 4th cousin 3 or 4 times removed? Their descendants might well be your 7th or 8th cousins, but that's not quite the same thing.

 

[John Dancy]

Peter, Quite right, the family that ends up with an 8th cousin. He matches at 35cm, against one of his closer cousins who has an unlinked tree and matches at 11cm.
Have this afternoon had to change one of my LC entries from 'Married' to 'blood relative' as a pair of his 2x grandparents were cousins. This is happening all the time.

 

[John Dancy]

Peter, However, where his 11cm cousin has no shared close matches, he has eleven, so a gateway through a wall ? Unfortunately he passed away in 2017 and I am not sure if anyone has taken his data over.