This prompt made me think of one of the projects I am doing for someone. On a census record one of their ancestors is noted as step son and notes a different surname to all the other records for this son. Subsequent generations use the family name this son’s father had, but if it wasn’t for this one census record the family might not even know that he was not his father’s biological son.
Not long after that census year the father left the mother. Likely oldest son being noted as his step son was likely a sign that the relationship was collapsing. It makes me wonder if the son knew that his father wasn’t his biological father.
I’m reminded of a census record from my own family tree. My 2x great grandfather, William Henderson, is listed as the adopted son of his mother’s husband. Same as her second born. But the previous census the children both had the surname of Littler. What changed between those two records. Did William and George grow distant from their mother’s husband? Was there some sort of rift? Or maybe these two boys still had contact with their biological father’s families and they felt a connection to their possibly deceased fathers and wanted to honor them by keeping the surnames they had a birth.
The one son from the first story could have known his father wasn’t his biological father, but since he knew him since he was a small boy he was all the father he knew so kept that name. And with my own ancestor and his brother, they may have had a good relationship with their step father. They are noted as adopted sons and not step sons after all. It is hard to know exactly what transpired with these two families. They all saw each other as family, no matter what the blood relation was or not. Family is often bigger than blood in the end.
On Their Shoulders 