HELP! UK Ancestry Visa!

[erinroslan]

Hello

I have quite a complicated situation here with my ancestry visa and would like a little bit of help. I am from Malaysia and my grandfather was born in England in 1896. He joined the army during World War 1 and then immigrated to Malaysia where he met my grandmother who is Malaysian. When he came to Malaysia, he changed his surname and when he converted to Islam here in Malaysia, he changed his first name which means he changed his name twice. I do not have any official documents to show his change of name. Here are a few questions I wanted to ask:-

1) Since I do not have any official documents to show his change of name, would other documents such as a citizenship document (Malaysian citizenship),identification card and police identification card showing his name and his aliases be sufficient?
- The only 'proof' I have of his first change of name is from a letter he sent to London saying that he had lost his Deed Poll that he made in Malaysia and that he is no longer using his original name. Will I be able to send this as proof?
- I do not have any proof of his second change of name as in Malaysia except the documents I mentioned above
2) My grandfather later became a Malaysian citizen. would that make me uneligible to apply for the ancestry visa although he was born in the UK? I am uncertain if he had dual citizenship or if he revoked his british citizenship and became a malaysian citizen
3) Would spelling errors of the name in the documents be a huge issue? This may sound a bit harsh but there was never a proper checking of names and spellings during that time and lots of people ended up having different names in their documents and in real life.
4) Can I send a document that is laminated or would I need to remove the lamination?
5) Some of the documents are in Bahasa Malaysia, our local language. Can I translate it to English myself and send it to the commisioner of oath to certify it or would it need to be translated by a certified translator?
6) Would I need to send my grandmother's birth certificate or would I only need to send my grandfather's birth certificate since I am claiming ancestry from him?
7) Do I need to send my grandfather's marriage certificate as well? I am asking this as his surname in his marriage certificate is different to all his other names and aliases in his other documents. I am afraid it may complicate things if I send it along with the other documents.
- It is different because the people who officiated his marriage with my grandma wrote his surname as a common Muslim surname and used that in his marriage certificate instead of his original surname. I have no idea why they did that. It is not even his actual name, as in he didn't change his name to that particular surname. Maybe it is a requirement here for someone to have a full Muslim name to marry another Muslim (his original surname is an English name). I'm thoroughly confused either way and I think it is best if I omit this document in case it causes the Immigration Officer confusion as well. But definitely the person written in that marriage certificate is my grandfather.
8 ) If it is required to send my grandfather's marriage certificate, can i send a sworn affidavit by my mother claiming that the name written in the marriage certificate is indeed her father?
9) Can I send my unit trust fund statement as proof of sufficient funds or does it need to be a bank statement from a savings account?

Sorry for all the long questions. I very much appreciate any help and advice I can get! Thank you!

[surprise23]

Hello, in my opinion I would say you only need to send his birth certificate - the fact that he's changed his name many times since should not matter. When I did my application I only submitted my grandfather's birth certificate and my father's. Is your parent's surname on their birth certificate the same as your grandfather's on his birth certificate?
I would submit as much as you need in paperwork, with a timeline letter attached to explain connections and differences etc. I wouldn't worry about grandmother's or marriage certificates, as the application guidelines says you can attach these only if you have them, and if you don't it doesn't matter - so I wouldn't. Just establish the connect between you + parent + grandfather and keep it simple as possible.