Widows surname query

Married, I think, but I would search the indexes for both.

Married.

Married I think as It totally threw DH and I when searching his Scottish heritage .

My grandmother was married twice and used her first married name on wedding certificate for second marriage. It was a bit confusing as we didnt know about first marriage!

Might depend on whether the lady was English or Scottish, as a married woman in Scotland was under no obligation to use her husband's surname.

My birth certificate has both my mother's married name and maiden name, listed as mother: Catherine Mc..... or H..., whereas on my father's birth certificate my grandmother's name is given as I, Mc,,,, (same as Grandpa's) née M...

The difference is due to the fact that my birth was registered in Paisley, my father's in Bradford.

There’s no obligation for a woman to take her husband’s surname in England either. I’ve always known people who didn’t. My drama teacher at school in the 1950s didn’t. My DIL hasn’t done. I nearly didn’t, but my maiden name was very difficult to spell and pronounce so I gave in. I now wish I had kept my maiden name.

I now that the ancestors I found the first married name was on the second marriage certificate with Nee ,maiden name underneath.Mine are all Scottish and Irish I dont know if its different elsewhere.My 3xGG was adopted when her dad died ..(.before she was born) and her certificate showed her dads name and her adopted dads along with her first married name when she remarried after being widowed young.Apparently she used to joke about the number of surnames on her certificate .

I see I didn't express myself very well in the above.
In Scotland it used to be legal for a married woman to use both her husband's surname and her maiden surname prefixed by Mrs, and I believe it still is.

Likewise you could use your mother or your father's surname, or any other surname you wanted. It was only an offence if it could be proved in a court of law that your intention was criminal.

In Scotland it is legal to use any name you want, regardless of marriage, as long as you have no unlawful purpose.

A cousin, married to a Swede, suggested that, following my divorce, could follow the Swedish custom of replacing my married surname with my family name, but prefacing it with 'Mrs'. However, as I wanted to keep the same name as my sons, to avoid confusion, I kept the married name and call myself Ms. My sister, through two divorces, kept our family name for professional reasons as it's the name under which she qualified as a doctor.

I think "married".