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Saturday 17 February 2018

The Birth of a New Surname Variation – Tedridge

A Misspelt Surname


Two months ago I was in Cardiff Registry Office waiting to register the death of my aunt.  At the counter was a gentleman in a very heated argument with the Registrar’s Assistant. He was waving a birth certificate in one hand and a driving licence in the other hand.  His complaint was that he had registered the birth of his child a few weeks ago and the surname on the certificate was spelt wrongly, despite the fact that he had given the registrar his driving licence to spell the surname. The assistant politely told him that when he registered the birth he was given the chance to check the certificate.  Since he had confirmed the accuracy of the certificate at that time the surname could not be changed. The only option was to change the name by deed poll at a cost. This incident took place in 2017 when we can all read and write - no wonder surname changes happened historically.

Ernest Percival Tedridge


The surname Tedridge is an illustration of how misspelling can create a new surname.  There is no record of anyone born with the surname Tedridge before 1912.  In September 1912 the birth of Ernest Percival Tedridge was registered in Southampton.  His birth certificate shows he is the son of Amelia Tedridge, hotel waitress of Southampton. He was born on 26 August at 1a Chilworth Road, Shirley Warren, Southampton.  The birth was registered by J C Young who described themselves as “occupier 1a Chilworth Road”, it was not registered by the parents or other relative. Since there are no Tedridges before this birth we can only conclude that the mother was in fact Amelia Tidridge not Amelia Tedridge.  Amelia Minnie Tidridge was born in 1891 one of eleven children born to Harry John Tidridge and Emma Louise Newman.  Harry and Emma Tidridge lived in Silverdale Road, Southampton just 3 miles away from where Ernest was born.


The Tedridge Surname


It therefore appears the birth of Ernest was erroneously registered as Tedridge.  Ernest kept his new surname and went on to marry Elsie. Their children and following generations kept the new family name of Tedridge.

2 comments:

Chris Pritchard said...

It is interesting to note that Amelia Minnie married in Aug 1913 Ernest Percival Seward (1883-1962), the same first names as her son. They never had any more children as far as I can tell from searching the records.
Chris Pritchard

Annabelles Travels said...

On the subject of surname variations, I highly recommend a book called "Help! Why can't I find my ancestor's surname" by Carol Baxter. Having borrowed it from the library, I got to Chapter two and realised that I was going to need my own copy - which has accumulated lots of tags, highlights etc in it. I also now give a talk on finding surnames based around the book. Carol is based in Aus, and you can buy the book direct from her website (and No, I don't get any commission - I just find this book very useful).