Seeking help with a Surname Change

[Len Wynne]

Hello,
I am new here, and not sure if this is the right place to post this question but here it is, and my apologies if I in the wrong spot.

I am looking for some help or suggestions for finding a family surname change that has had me confounded for ages. I have traced the family of my Great Grandmother back to Edinburgh and somewhere along the way a change in their surname took place.

What I know for sure is that my great grandmother's father and mother were both born in Ireland and went to Edinburgh when they were children, somewhere between 1840-1850 (the Potato Famine Years). He mother's name was Mary Murphy and her father's name was Luke Duffy.

I have found the records of them both, going back to the 1851 Scotland Census when Luke was still in the home of his father Bernard Duffy, and going up until 1871 when when Luke and Mary Duffy were married with several children – including my Great Grandmother Catherine Duffy, born 1861.

The next records I find of the family is about the time of their 1878 immigration to the US, when suddenly their name was changed to Hughes – the Duffy used for most of them as a middle name and not a hyphenated surname, From that point on they are only to be found under the name of Hughes, including an 1915 obituary, written by my Great Grandmother for her father whom she listed as Luke D Hughes.

I have recently been working under the assumption that they, as a family, took the Hughes name as a result of not wanting an Irish surname in a time when anti-Irish sentiment in the US was so prevalent. I though initially they changed the name on arrival in the US, but I have found them in the ship logs under the Hughes name, so I am thinking they may have changed their family surname while still in Scotland. I do not know what papers whey would have needed to emigrate.

If anyone has come across a similar situation or has any idea of where I might look to see if there is any records might exist of a legal surname change I would greatly appreciate it.

[Anne H]

Hello Len and

My Irish Roe family were known on the census records as Munro, however all other records, (bmd's) were registered in the correct name of Roe with the exception of my great grandfather's death where my grandmother registered her father as Thomas Roe a/k/a Munro. I can only assume he might have changed his name to make it sound more Scottish.

I also have on my Scottish side at least one or two instances where the 'heir to be' had to change his name in order to inherit.

There is also the possibility of illegitimacy but that doesn't seem to be the reason here.

I could be wrong, and hopefully someone will correct me if I am, but I think in Scotland you can be known by any name you want providing you aren't trying to evade the law for any reason.

Regards,
Anne H

[Elwyn 1]

Len,

I am fairly sure that in 1878 no documentation was required to travel from the UK to the US. Passports (as we know them today) weren’t introduced until WW1, and visas were after that. In 1878 you just booked a ticket in any name you liked.

Likewise, as Anne H has said, my understanding is that Scottish law (and that for England and Ireland too) allows you to use any name, provided it’s not for a dishonest purpose. There is no requirement to register any change of name. I know someone who did it in the UK fairly recently. She found it helpful to swear an affidavit in front of a Commissioner of Oaths and sent that to her bank and the passport authorities, to get them to change her name on their records. That was it. In 1878 you wouldn’t even have had to do that.

[Len Wynne]

Thank you both for insights and information.

This search for me has been going on sporadically for the past 20 years, beginning when I called the Archdiocese in Chicago to inquire about my Great Grandmother's marriage. An elderly priest was kind enough to dig out the church record book to tell me the names of her parents - Luke Duffy and Mary Murphy - not a Hughes to be found. Clearly she would have needed to provide her baptismal certificate, which I know did not have any mention of the Hughes name. That led our family to think for years an adoption might have taken place, which I now know was not the case.

Part of the long confusion had come from stories she told my father when he was young about her having Hughes relations in San Francisco that she did not get along with, which had helped foster the idea of an adoption. But as I have confirmed with the US census records, the Hughes that she did not get along with were, sadly, her own siblings. Only one of her 13 siblings was born after the family came to the US, and so this one was the only one truly born with the surname Hughes.

I guess mystery of how and why the family adopted the Hughes name at the time of their emigration from Scotland will remain just that - a mystery.

[Anne H]

I guess mystery of how and why the family adopted the Hughes name at the time of their emigration from Scotland will remain just that - a mystery.

That makes two of us - a mystery for my Roe family also however, you never know, you might get a lead one of these years.

Regards,
Anne H

[Currie]

Hello Len,

Was he the Basket Maker? If so he was still using his Duffy name up to when he left Scotland. As you say it may have been news of anti Irish feeling in America that prompted him to use another surname. If he left Ireland at a very young age he probably did not have an accent and could easily get away with not being Irish.

The 1877-78 Edinburgh directory has him as an Indian chair maker, caneworker, and basketmaker, with his business at 177 High st. and his house at 7 Allan’s close. https://archive.org/details/postofficee ... in/page/60

1878-79 has his address as 50A Cockburn street. https://archive.org/details/postofficee ... /page/n101

According to the Edinburgh Evening News, Monday, December 02, 1878, there had been a fire in his shop
https://imgur.com/a/g2koDFn

And the Edinburgh Evening News, Saturday, January 18, 1879
Sale of fire and water damaged stock belonging to Luke Duffy.
https://imgur.com/a/RdwJ7np

A previous incident in 1867 was reported world wide.

The Glasgow Herald - Oct 11, 1867
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=_ ... %2C4940042

The Mercury (Hobart, Tasmania, Sat 21 Dec 1867
• https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/arti ... 587/780416

Hope that’s useful,
Alan

[Len Wynne]

Hi Alan,

That is him! Thank you so very much for the articles, it is the first time I have seen any information like this. It does seem that the Hughes name was likely not used until they put their names in log of ship's passengers at the time of their emigration in 1879.

Luke Duffy did arrive in Scotland very young, learning to read and write, as well as his trade - which he learned from his father Bernard who was also a basket maker. I have had less luck finding information on his wife, Mary Murphy. She was born in Ireland too, around 1843. The potato famine/great hunger may have been a reason for her family going to Scotland. They were married in 1859 and were there 20 years by the time they left for the US.

I think I can probably safely assume the name change was a result of not wanting to be identified as Irish in the US.

Thank you again.

Len