Last Name

[AnneM]

Hi Nancy

This is what I gleaned about the Beith Sheddens. It is later than the people you are referring to but may have a connection. If you think you have a connection I could dig up the name of the person who contacted me about this Anne Shedden.

Anne Shedden

Parish of Beith

Child’s name: Anne Shedden
Not present

Sex: Female

Born: 1855 May 17th 9hr 0am
?Head Street Beith

Father Thomas Shedden
Ironwork Labourer
Age 36 years
Birthplace Beith

Marriage: 1838, Beith

2 boys & 2 girls living
1 boy & 1 girl deceased

Mother: Anne Shedden
MS Walker
Her 7th Child
Age 37 years
Birthplace Beith

Informant Thomas Shedden, father

Registered 7th June 1855 at Beith
William Duff, Registrar

A look at Scotland’s People site shows

Thomas Shedden b 24.12.1816 in Beith to Robert Shedden and Janet Harvey

Ann Walker b 16.06.1816 dtr of John Walker and Margaret Gardiner

Thomas Shedden and Ann Walker were married 30th Aug 1839

[nicolamilligan]

Hi - I'm a newbie on here but came by the site while doing a search for the name Shedden from the Beith area of Ayrshire.

I have quite a bit of information gained while researching my own family tree (my own line of Sheddens later being involved in the rail industry near Kilmarnock and also marrying into another fairly large Ayrshire family, the Strawhorns.

Feel free to get in touch to share info.

[joette]

Hi Nicola & a warm Welcome to TalkingScot.It is really nice that you have offered to share info on your Sheddens.
If there is anything we can help you with go for it.We are a pretty helpful bunch & we will help when we can.

[derek01]

I am a Shedden and my ancesters come from Beith of which are connected to the Smiths and McCutchons and Tennants and Brechenridge all of Ayrshire any one wantting to swap info to see if anything match please let me know

[Montrose Budie]

I never knew that you could give a child any surname you liked, even if it's not the name of the mother or the father.
But a friend in England, lets call her Miss Smith, married a man called Mr Jones, and she kept her maiden name both professionally and personally. So even though she was legally married she was always just Miss Smith (it's not me by the way - I too kept my own name after marriage, but that's another story). Anyway, Miss Smith and Mr Jones have a baby, and they registered it as Baby Smith. Miss Smith had a very unusual name, and didn't want it to die out, she also didn't much like her husband's. But a second friend, living with her partner but unmarried, gave their baby her own mother's maiden name. So mother father and child all have different surnames.

Hmmm...... I should have picked up on this one before.

This scenarion is not possible in Scotland. England?, - don't know.

In terms of Scottish registration law a legitimate child is registered with the surname of the father. There is no choice in the matter.

For an illegitimate child, if the father is not present for the registration then the child is registered with the surname of the mother. Again, no choice. The father cannot make the registration on his own.

Where the father is also present at the registration and signs the register along with the mother (or other informant present, e.g. grannie etc.,) then the registration normally uses the surname of the father. It's not 100% clear if there was choice, but, no matter, as the birth would always be indexed under both surnames.

In adult life it was a matter for the person concerned to decide how they wanted to be known.

Most Scots who wanted to preserve a surname added it in as a middle name.


For the moment let's not get into other 'interesting' areas, - an illegitimate birth to a married woman, a birth where the married couple haven't lived together for some time, a birth to a widow, a birth in a bigamous marriage, and the child of a woman recently married. In the latter case the presumption is that the husband is the father, - pater est quem nuptiae demonstrant, - but, rare and peculiar cases occur where the mother and husband concur that he is not the father..................

mb

[garibaldired]

but, rare and peculiar cases occur where the mother and husband concur that he is not the father..................

I have come across one like this, born in 1882 six months after the mother's marriage! He was registered, and always known by, the mother's maiden surname with the father's name (I'm presuming this as I haven't been able to prove it!) as a middle name.
The birth certificate made interesting reading......

Best wishes,
Meg