This was not uncommon. My Father's name was changed after he was 4 years  
old - after the 1900 census. They marked the original name out in the family  
Bible and wrote in the new name. They changed his middle name from "Bryan" 
to  "Alva" in honor of a prominent uncle who had no male heirs & they did 
not  want the name to die out. I did not know about this until I started doing 
 genealogy about 8 years ago.
 
Mary  Winn
2623 W Watrous Ave.
Tampa, FL  33629
813-254-3852
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In a message dated 3/15/2011 9:48:59 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:

I wonder  if this happened more than a few times. When starting my research 
I came  across two members of my grandads family that I had never heard of. 
One was  named Robert and the other Adolpus Elias. Robert had the same 
birth date as my  grandfather Elias. I thought he must of had a twin that died 
shortly after  birth except I could not find my grandfather Elias' birth 
record. Then I found  out that Adolphus Elias had the same birth date as my 
great uncle Adolphus  Theodore. After speaking with an older sister of the two 
she told me that  Adolphus was the first boy born and her parents had named 
him after both  grandfathers, ( one grandfather being Adolphus Theodore and 
the other being  Elias). After about a year another son was born and they 
first named him  Robert, sometime shortly after they decided to name one son 
after one  grandfather and the other son after the other. So they changed 
Adolphus Elias'  name to Adolphus Theodore and the other, Robert to Elias. If my 
great aunt had  not been alive to tell us the story we would have never 
known, my great uncle  didn't even know the story that his name had been 
changed.  

Stan

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