Which name as last name at birth? The birth certificate had been corrected [closed]

Question

Hello community,

which name I have to enter as last name at birth of my great-grandfather W. B.?

My great-great-grandfather J. B. could not read and write.

In 1861 he reports to the civil registration office the birth of his son W. (my great-grandfather). In the birth register entry is written that J. Bannscheidt reports the birth of his son W. Bannscheidt.

In 1928 a side note was added to the birth register entry: Following a court order of the district court: the correct family name is "Barnscheidt".

In 1946 my great-grandfather W. B. died. In the register of deaths is only the correct name W. Barnscheidt.

In 1957 a birth certificate was written according the register entry about W. Bannscheidt with the side note about the correct family name Barnscheidt.

So W. Barnscheidt had 67 years a wrong family name …
But the last name was not changed from Bannscheidt to Barnscheidt. It was corrected by a court order.

So what should I enter as last name at birth?

With best regards

Siegfried Keim

Comments

Hi Siegfried. In my view the name should be what the family intended, despite errors in the official record. Further to that, even if a legalistic approach is followed, the court order should be seen as retrospective. If you accept either of these arguments, the last name at birth should be Barnscheidt.

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Thanks Jim,

if you would have given an "Answer" I would give you the star for the best answer. :-) But you gave a "Comment" which I cannot rate …

Best regards!

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[[Barnscheidt-1|W. Barnscheidt]]

Answer 1

I think I'd go with Barnscheidt, with Bannscheidt listed as an other last name.  Sometimes when I have two names and I'm not sure which should be the LNAB, then I search the two names on WT.  And then I go with the one with the most numbers.  But it seems like Barnscheidt is more correct in this case.

Comments

Thanks Lynnette Hettrick,

I will follow your and Jims advice to enter the corrected name as name at birth.

But the scenario is very "funny": In the death register is my great-grandfather called W. Barnscheidt, his father is called J. Barnscheidt and the son, my granduncle is called R. Barnscheidt.

But my grandmother was already married at the time of the court order. In her certificate of inheritance she was still called born Bannscheidt. :-)

Unfortunately I could not get the court order. It's too old to find it in the district court. I would be eager to see the complete wording …