Last name affectation.... I would appretiate advice

Question

This is a name formatting problem I have encountered, and would appretiate any input you could give as to how I go about displaying this last name (middle name) correctly.

Basically I am working on a profile of John Taylor Marsh. (The Taylor is a MIDDLE name, as his brothers were Albert Whittle Marsh, and Henry Sheate Marsh) So for John this is definatly a middle name.

He marries Jessie Brown, who goes on to use the name Jessie Taylor Marsh. They then adopt a girl and a boy, and name them Mary Helen Taylor Marsh, and John David Taylor Marsh.

John David marries a Winifred Woodwark, who then uses the name Winifred Taylor Marsh.

On official documents the last name is always Marsh, and the Taylor part is used as a middle name.

So for wife Jessie... where do I put the Taylor part... It isnt officially her last name, and I cannot use it as a middle name, as then she would be Jessie Taylor Brown, which she wasnt.

I am still working on the profile, so not a lot of information there yet, I wanted to sort this naming bit before moving further on.

Answer 1

It's clearly an affectation, but if records show these people using "Taylor Marsh" as their last name, it should be recorded as a last name. For him, I think I'd call it an "Other Last Name."

Possibly because I've watched Downton Abbey, the fact that this Englishman married an American in New York City in 1895, then returned to England to reside, makes me think that this affectation is in some way related to an American fascination with British titles.

Comments

Thanks for that Ellen.

For Jessie, I set LNAB to 'Brown', Current Last name as 'Marsh', and Other last name as 'Taylor Marsh'  and everything now looks correct.

Answer 2

If Taylor isn't used in official documents for Jessie Marsh I wouldn't use it at all for her except perhaps a mention about it in her biography.