Can a woman have two maiden names? Sort of. Likely she had one maiden name, but due to circumstances such as a blended family, an adoption, or being born to an unmarried mother, she might either choose to use (or others might mistakenly use) a different surname.
I stumbled across Laura C. Morgan living in Fremont Twp, Santa Clara County, California on the 1900 U.S. federal census (this is present day Los Altos for all you locals).[1] Her son Percy Tredeger Morgan made a name for himself which you can read about on the Los Altos Hills Historical Society’s website. But Laura was the intriguing figure to me: information on her son’s birth record and other family trees showed her name as Laura Couche,[2] but her marriage record listed her as a spinster (i.e., previously unmarried) named Laura Bynes.[3] What could this discrepancy mean, and how do you figure out the answer?
Make sure these are the same individuals.
Making sure you’re looking at the same individual should always be your first thought when looking at two records—even when most things seem to line up. In this instance, both records clearly linked to the same Laura despite the different last names. Percy Tredeger Morgan was a distinctive name, so I was confident that I had the correct birth record. The Laura Couche listed on Percy’s birth record was the same as Laura Morgan. Laura’s husband’s name was George Cosmo Morgan. George’s distinct middle name made me confident that I had the correct marriage record for the pair, and that the Laura Bynes listed was the same Laura Morgan found on the birth record. Both records linked to the same individual.
Had Laura been married before?
Since Laura had reported her own name on her marriage record, I went with the assumption that Bynes was her preferred name. Could she actually have been married before, and was Bynes a married name? This is a common reason not to find women when searching under their maiden name; if there’s an unknown marriage, you’re doing the wrong search. However, no searches turned up records for a Laura Couche marrying anyone with the last name Bynes, so this was not the answer.
Answering the question
The first clues were found by looking at the original birth record for Laura Couche. An Ancestry hint for a birth index listed a Laura Couche born in 1839. Accessing the original document from the GRO listed Laura’s father as Edward Couche and her mother as Elizabeth Bynes.[4] Bynes was her mother’s maiden name! When a child uses a mother’s maiden name instead of the father’s surname, it is generally a clue that the parents were not married when the child was born.
The 1841 England census tells another piece of that story. It shows 60 year-old Edward Couche in the same household as Elizabeth Bynes and her two children, Fanny and Laura Bynes. 25 year-old Elizabeth is listed as a female servant.[5] Without Laura’s birth record listing Edward as the father, it would not be apparent that these were his children. In the 1851 census, Elizabeth disappears out of the household. Both Fanny and Laura live with Edward, along with a governess and two servants.[6] Clearly Edward is taking care of them.
A more complete picture is found reading Edward Couche’s will. Edward died in 1852. Working my way through the very smudgy ink, five times in the will Edward refers to his daughters as “Fanny and Laura Bynes commonly called or know as Fanny and Laura Couche”.[7] I won’t go into the very interesting situation this created, but let’s just say that Edward provided very well for Fanny and Laura Bynes. Not only were they allowed to stay in their residence (along with all horses, carriages, etc.), but he left them together eight thousand pounds in stock, with the dividends used to support them. As they were still young, they were left to the guardianship of their mother Elizabeth, who had since married a different man.
The answer is that Laura was known by both surnames. Bynes was her maiden name, as that’s the surname she gave on her marriage record. Given that she lived with her father Edward Couche, she was often known as Laura Couche.
[1] Census record. USA. Fremont, Santa Clara, California. 2 June 1900. MORGAN, Geo C. (Head). ED 49. Sheet 1B. LN 57-60. Collection: United States Census, 1900. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-6X7Q-7QY : accessed 15 September 2023.
[2] Births index (CR) England & Wales. RD Westminster. 2nd Q, 1862. MORGAN, Percy Tredeger. Vol. 1a. p. 334. www.gro.gov.uk : accessed 7 October 2023.
[3] Marriages (PR) England. St. Peter Pimlico, Middlesex. 15 August 1859. MORGAN, George Cosmo and BYNES, Laura. vol. 5. p. 110. No.219. Collection: Westminster, London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1935. https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 7 October 2023.
[4] Births (CR) England. Heavitree, Devon. 23 October 1839. COUCHS, Laura. Entry no. 235.
[5] Census records. England. East Budleigh, Devon. 6 June 1841. COUCHE, Edward [Head]. PN HO 107/206/7. FL 8. ED District 4. p. 10. Collection: England and Wales Census, 1841. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MQTL-JDK : accessed 7 October 2023.
[6] Census records. England. East Budleigh, Devon. 30 March 1851. COACH, Edward (Head). PN HO 107/1865. FL 123. SN 175. ED 5a. p. 60. Collection: England and Wales Census, 1851. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:SGNT-8HL : accessed 7 October 2023.
[7] Testamentary records. England. 11 January 1853. COUCHE, Edward, Esq. Will. Prerogative Court of Canterbury: Will Registers. PROB 11/11/2165. Collection: England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858. https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 7 October 2023.
