Hello everyone. i thought i'd share some interesting information regarding female surnames in Portugal prior to the 1900s. Mostly I found that females took on their mothers' surnames - married women kept their surnames and didn't take their husbands surnames - and males took on their father's surnames. In my family tree, which I have traced back to before 1680, only the most recent (my mother) took on her spouse's last name as a legal surname. Sign of the times. Still, I'm proud that all my women ancestors took on their mother's surname as their surnames :) Yay for us women!
