Genealogy Chat

Just wanted to know if there is any way of viewing if someone has changed their name by deed poll?

Not as such but some people choose to make an announcement of a name change in the press such as in the London Gazette.

I changed my surname when i turned 18.. Just got a certificate to of proof.

http://deed-poll-office.org.uk/faq#historical-research

Nadine - do you know for definite that someone did change their name by deed poll?

I changed my name that way but legally I didn't have to. As long as you're not doing it for fraudulent purposes you can call yourself anything you like.

it used to be common ......... 2 or 3 times a week sometimes ................ to see notices in a local paper, saying basically "as of November 30 1960, I, John Smith, will be known as Bob Taylor. Bob Taylor accepts no responsibility for any debts incurred by John Smith"


I used to see those in the 1950s and 60s.




as MC says, it is not necessary to change your name by deed poll, or even by advertising the fact in the local paper, as long as it is not being done for fraudulent purposes.


You just had to make sure that everyone who needed to know was told .............. eg, change the name on a bank account if you had one.

I came across such a newspaper statement just yesterday when googling a name so you may be lucky.

Im 80% sure he did. I found out on a forum that his brother George Werner Schonbeck changed his named in 1947 to Sonter-Reece.
Ernest Schonbeck married Lily Christenson in 1920 and had one child, Doreen L Schonbeck in 1922 but there was another birth certificate under the name of Doreen L Carr-Schonbeck which at first i thought nothing of.
I later had an email from a lady saying that Ernest Schonbeck had married her grandmother Jeanne Rigby. When i found the marriage certificate it was Jeanne Rigby and Ernest Carr.
There are a few family trees in ancestry under the name of Schonbeck / Carr but sadly no one is responding to my messages :(

Not sure if this is the same person or a relative

.........................
I, GEORGE WERNER HEINRICH SONTERREECE
of 8 Grayson Avenue Whitefield Lancaster
Tailor a natural born British subject, heretofore
called and known by the name of George Werner
Heinrich Schbnbeck hereby give notice that I have
renounced and abandoned the name of George
Werner Heinrich Schonbeck and that I have assumed
and intend henceforth on all occasions whatsoever
and at all times to sign and use and to be called
and known by the name of George Werner Heinrich
Sonter-Reece in lieu of and in substitution for my
former name of George Werner Heinrich Schonbeck.
And I also hereby give notice that such change of
name is formally declared and evidenced by a deed
poll under my hand and seal dated the 7th day of
August 1947 duly executed and attested, -and that
such deed poll was enrolled in the Central Office
of the Supreme Court of Judicature on the I3th day
of August 1947.—Dated this 7th day of August,
1947-
GEORGE WERNER HEINRICH SONTERREECE,
formerly George Werner Heinrich
(164) Schonbeck.

.........................
THE LONDON GAZETTE, 15 AUGUST, 1947
http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/38047/pages/3863/page.pdf

Someone elses 2008 thread as background to this family

http://www.genesreunited.com.au/boards/board/trying_to_find/schonbeck/thread/1016389

My son changed his name !! he added his fathers name and when I added it to a tree on another site it added it to his original birth record ......but his orriginal birth reg also shows ....