My family is a powerful one, with a lineage stretching back thousands of years if our histories are accurate.  We were not always called Hurst of course.  Power and money has passed on through, and into, the family via daughters and wives more than once after all, and not every culture maintains family names as we do now.  Also it was sometimes advantageous to change the family name.  One must always be willing to set aside a name if it becomes too radioactive.