He did not contribute to the gene pool (for which I suspect he is very grateful). He is your husband's step father; therefore, he is your child's step-grandfather.

You consider a dead man to be your father-in-law? Odd. I would be grateful, personally, that a man who is not related by blood apparently loves your child.

Okay, you can cause problems with the stepgrandfather by bringing the whole 'I prefer a dead man to you" issue to his attention.

I'm a stepmother, by the way.

Surnames do not have a family history despite numerous surname product peddlers who like to make you think they do so they can sell you a surname history scroll, maybe a coat of arms. Frequently they use the misnomer "family crest" when talking about a full coat of arms. A crest is merely a decoration on top of the helmet, usually a 3 dimensional bird or beast. Coats of arms, except in Poland and maybe some eastern European countries, do not belong to families and definitely not to surnames. They were/are granted (or assumed in some continental European countries) by individuals not families.

Your ancestors with the surname has a history not the surname itself.
When surnames were assigned or taken in Europe during the last millennium it wasn't impossible for legitimate sons of the same man to wind up with a different surname and still each could have shared his with others with no known relationship. The purpose originally was not to identify a man as a member of a family but just to better identify him, frequently for taxation purposes. Too many men with the same given name in the same town or village and they had to have a way of figuring who was who.

If this is for a school project please feel free to print it off and give it to your teacher.

How do I change "my name" from "me" BACK TO my real first and last name? Oct. 10, 2014, Weds 2:10?

A maiden name is the surname of an unmarried woman's family. In some countries, the woman traditionally changes her name to her new husband's family name on marriage. You may also see the maiden name written as Jane Smith née Brown. Brown being her maiden name. Née is the French for born.

Losing the maiden name is not standard in other European countries. For example in Italy women retain their family name.
:In Italy, as far as I know, there is no legal procedure by which a woman could change her surname to her husband's, even if she wanted to.:
http://www.beginningwithi.com/2003/09/08...

In France, "Since the 1789 Revolution, the law stipulates that "no one may use another name than that given on his birth certificate". Same in the Netherlands.
In Spain children take the surname of both parents, parents can decide which comes first.
From Wikipedia.