A few Q's please

[Lensgirl]

Hi

I am having a play with my step-dads tree and want to do as much as i possibly can before i have to buy a cert (unfortunately its not in my county so cant go to the RO). Can anyone help with the following:

The surname Olive-Jones: i take would come between Olive and Oliver in the BMD index?
A surname change done approx 1936 (married as Jones, first child is Olive-Jones) would be logged somewhere?
Would there be a bastardy record somewhere for a child born in 1917?

All these are around the London/Middlesex area

many thanks

[Olde Crone Holden]

Surname changes are rarely recorded anywhere - you can call yourself whatever you like and double-barrel away to your heart's content. Some name changes done by Deed Poll are announced in the Gazette.

No Bastardy Orders as such for the 1900s, only Paternity orders taken out in the Magistrate's Court. These are routinely destroyed 20 years after the last maintenance payment is made but I suppose some might have survived by accident!

OC

[Lensgirl]

bummer! thanks OC

[Olde Crone Holden]

I don't think the GRO takes much notice of double-barrelled names in the index - I don't recall ever seeing any, so you would need to look under both surnames I think.

OC

[Lensgirl]

Thanks OC. managed to find the death as Jones with the O as a middle name, as per his birth and marriage. Not sure if that is just a misinterpretation or whether they registered his death with his legal name. I can only imagine that his fathers surname was Olive or some variant as the birth is registered as William OJ Jones and so is the marriage.

[Uncle John]

I don't think the GRO takes much notice of double-barrelled names in the index - I don't recall ever seeing any, so you would need to look under both surnames I think.

I've seen some that are indexed twice, with the first "barrel" treated as a middle name in one entry.

[KiteRunner]

Before the 20th century they were nearly always indexed under the last part of the surname, with the first half of the surname as a middle name. It's only after WW1 that you will start seeing many double-barrelled surnames in the index.