Maybe he changed his name?

For Christmas my cousin in North Carolina sent me a few more digital photographs of our ancestors.

One of the pictures was of our 2nd Great Grandfather – Allen Pierce Richmond (1826-1912) – he was born in Maine and died in New Hampshire.

I did a quick search of the historical newspapers on GenealogyBank and quickly found out more about him.

It seems that Allen Pierce Richmond was not always his name. In 1848, when he was only 22 years old, he petitioned the New Hampshire State Legislature to change his name from Allen Richmond Dore to Allen Pierce Richmond. His mother’s maiden name was Mary Pierce Richmond (1808-1888). Not only did Allen do this but so did his brother John W. Dore and his wife Elizabeth Dore. Interestingly his parents, John (1801-1873) and Mary Pierce (Richmond) Dore (1808-1888) lived with John W. Richmond in Dover, NH until they died.

The newspaper article about this appeared in the 6 July 1848 issue of the New Hampshire Patriot & State Gazette. It gives the names of all of the persons that appealed to the State Legislature to have their names legally changed.

This was more common than you might think - there were dozens of people that had their names officially changed that day. Sally Jones of Pittsfield, NH became Sally Pillsbury; James Henry Shapley of Rye, NH became James Henry Locke; William C. Powers of Groton, NH became George Powers; Lewis Twitchel of Dublin, NH became Lewis Powhattan Randolph - and the list goes on and on. Pearson, Hoyt, Greenough, Johnson, Chase, Harris, Strattan, Colbath, Locke, Shapley, Manley, Whitehouse, Powers, Dickey, Towle, Blake, Clement, Peck, Burley, Keyes and many more are just some of the surnames on this list.

Newspapers routinely published change of name lists that were acted on by the State Legislature or the courts across the country. What a find in GenealogyBank!

Be sure to take advantage of GenealogyBank’s special price for the holidays: only $69.95 for an annual subscription – but hurry, this special ends on Monday January 7th.

It’s a great day for genealogy!