My name is Wassell and yet Samuel’s name is Wassall so I wanted to find out when and how this changed.

Short answer: from what I can see in the records that are online, the actual “turn” from WASSELL to WASSALL in Samuel’s line happens in the lifetime of his father, Thomas (b. ~1819), and is clearly visible between the 1861 and 1871 censuses. Before that, all the older generations back to John (bap. 1711 Old Swinford) are recorded as Wassell.

Let me walk through this investigation:

1. The early line – all “Wassell”

My my own tree matches what I can see online: going back from Samuel you get to:

  • John WASSELL, bapt. 1711 Old Swinford, m. Elizabeth COLERAKE
    • Son Thomas WASSELL, bapt. 1733, m. Elizabeth PARDON
    • Son Richard WASSELL, bapt. 1745, m. Hannah PARDOE (Pardon)

All the parish-register style entries in this period (Old Swinford, Kingswinford, Birmingham) are under WASSELL in the transcriptions. I haven’t found an 18th- or early-19th-century record in that exact line that uses Wassall instead.

So up to at least the early 1800s, my shared ancestors are consistently “Wassell”.

2. Samuel himself – born as Wassell

A really useful nugget appears in the Genealogy Forum thread:

  • Researcher Steve Moore notes that Samuel’s birth certificate for 28 July 1856 at Alcester Street, Deritend spells his surname “Wassell”, not “Wassall”.

So in 1856, at birth registration, he is officially Samuel Wassell.

Multiple modern biographies then give his parents as:

  • Thomas Wassall, wire worker / wire-worker journeyman
  • Elizabeth (née Silk)

Those later authors have already adopted the Wassall spelling, but they’re clearly talking about the same family whose earlier paperwork used Wassell.

3. The key bit: 1861 vs 1871 censuses

The same forum thread gives a neat side-by-side of the census entries:

  • 1861 – Birmingham
    • Thomas Wassell 41, wire worker
    • Elizabeth ” 39
    • William ” 12
    • Martha ” 8
    • Thomas ” 6
    • Samuel ” 4
    • Henry ” 2

Here the whole family, including VC Samuel, is referred to as Wassell.

  • 1871 – Dudley area
    • Thomas Wassall 52, wire worker, Birmingham
    • Samuel ” 15, brick layer, Birmingham
    • Henry ” 10, Birmingham

By 1871, the same father and sons are written as Wassall.

That’s the earliest clear official source I can see where the family in Samuel’s direct line appears as “Wassall” rather than “Wassell”.

From that point on:

  • Samuel appears in the 1881, 1891, 1901 censuses as Wassall. (genealogyforum.co.uk)
  • Military / VC material consistently uses Wassall. (Wikipedia and victoriacrossonline.co.uk)
  • Modern genealogical summaries all refer to Wassall.

4. So who changed it, and when?

Given what’s online:

  • All earlier generations back to John (bap. 1711) are “Wassell”.
  • Samuel’s 1856 birth certificate is “Wassell”.
  • The 1861 census has the family as “Wassell”.
  • The 1871 census has the same family as “Wassall”.

That strongly suggests that:

  • The transition in Samuel’s branch happens between 1861 and 1871, and
  • The first person in my tree who is demonstrably recorded both ways is his father, Thomas (b. c.1819, wire worker).

Whether Thomas himself consciously chose to start using Wassall, or whether a clerk wrote it that way and the family simply adopted it, we can’t see from the documents. But he is the generation where the spelling begins to change in official records, and Samuel is the generation where Wassall becomes the recorded spelling.

5. How “authoritative” is this?

With historical surnames you almost never get a single clean “on this date the name changed” moment. Spellings often drift:

  • Parish clerks and registrars wrote what they heard.
  • Literacy and standardisation improved in the 19th century, which is exactly when we see “Wassall” solidifying for Samuel.

From the evidence that’s actually visible online, though, the best-supported answer is:

In the line from John Wassell (bap. 1711) down to Private Samuel, the surname is consistently Wassell in parish records until at least the early 19th century.

Samuel himself is registered at birth in 1856 as Wassell, and his family appear as Wassell in the 1861 census.

By the 1871 census, his father Thomas and the children (including Samuel) are enumerated as Wassall, and all later records for Samuel follow that spelling.

So the practical transition from Wassell → Wassall in his branch happens in the lifetime of Thomas (b. c.1819), sometime between 1861 and 1871, and is fully adopted by Samuel’s adult life and military career.

E&OE