Hi all,
Am new to message board as I have only recently up graded membership.
Interesting reading your posts and gives some credance to stories that my mother has passedon to me re my father and his heritage.
I was born and raised BENNETT, however I have since confirmed that my father had changed his name from Eric John STEIN to John BENNETT. He had told mum that this was to protect the family. He had also led mum to believe that somehow we were related to a Prussian princess who abdicated to UK when Prussia fell.
Considering that he did not have access to computers and research capabilities to create such an elaborate story I tend to believe there may be some truth in what he told Mum.
When Dad changed his name he ceased contact with his family, so what he told mum would have to have been from stories passed down from one generation to the next.
Finding my remaining relatives here in Aust is not proving to be an easy task. I have written to quite a few families without gaining any ground.
I see that allyour posts were early 2000, maybe some of you may have some more knowledge of this family.
Gail

Gail,
I think you need to sort out some basic facts to make any progress. Where did your father change his name? In England it is legal to use any name as long as there is no intent to defraud. However if something like a passport is required it is likely that the original name would have to be stated as there would be no bc under the assumed name - so if your father changed his name in England and then applied for a British passport you might find a clue there? Why would he change his name to "protect his family"? Stein is not an uncommon name in Germany, nearly 17,000 entries in dastelefonbuch, so he could have belonged almost anywhere. Was he a Jewish refugee? Stein is not unknown amongst Jewish names. As to Prussian princesses I would be inlined to doubt that. Most of the Prussian royalty stayed in Germany, they were not turned out and in any case Germans were most unpopular in England after WW1 - even the present Royal Family had to change their name because Germans were so disliked. Or did your father go straight to Australia from Germany where things could be quite different? In that case you would have to look for Australian immigration records. I would suggest your first step is to let people know where and when he changed his name then someone might have a suggestion for the next step. Just for interest, Prussia did not "fall". Germany became a republic at the end of WW1 with Prussia remaining part of the state. The name "Prussia" was officially wiped out by the Allied Control Commission in 1947 - not that I think anyone was particularly worried about it by then!