I had the death certificates for two siblings. The mother’s maiden name was not the same. They were clearly different and the script was precise and legible. One was Fox and one was Conner. Further research indicated the mother’s woman’s last name at birth was Conner and that after her Conner husband died, she married a man with the last name of Fox.
So the Fox reference was not to her maiden name, but to a different married name. The informant made an error, but gave me another name from that woman’s past. Many times those “wrong” pieces of information are clues to something else (the exception to this seems to be dates–people often didn’t know their age or lied about it). Any other piece of information that appears to be wrong just may have a different connection to the person than what is stated on the document.
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