Regarding different surnames, a major reason is that the parents had a religious marriage but no civil marriage so their official civil name was the maternal one. As a result, my grandmother’s name on her official birth certificate references her as illegitimate. Another major reason has nothing to do with hate. Before her pre-immigration marriage, my same grandmother preferred my grandfather’s maternal surname of Konigsberg. My grandfather’s father’s surname was Topf which translated to Pot. So there are practical reasons and names of preference as 2 of the reasons.
