One small possible explanation for those variations in spelling: some
linguists believe that the pronunciation of English, in the time of the
first settlers from England, was rather like the Southern accents that we
hear today. And in a great deal of the South, R's are pronounced almost
like H's - particularly in the middle of words. Thus my cousin, who lives in
Alabama near the Georgia border, says "bohduh" for border, and "wohd"
for
word. And sometimes her little daughter, will spell a word that has no R, by
putting an R in, such as "alcorhol" for alcohol (she says the word
correctly).
So, it could have simply been that Kersey sounded like Kah-sey to some
people, so they wrote it that way. What was certainly true was that
spelling wasn't standardized, even within a family. I've seen in one census,
persons who were certainly related, listed on the same page, with the
spellings Cayce and Cassie, or Casy and Keesie.
Rita Casey
On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 3:00 AM, <casey-request(a)rootsweb.com> wrote:
Today's Topics:
1. Re: Kers(e)y to Casey? (Joyce)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:13:24 -0500
From: "Joyce" <joy_harr(a)swbell.net>
Subject: Re: [CASEY] Kers(e)y to Casey?
To: <casey(a)rootsweb.com>
Message-ID: <71DCF17FB63241249B258CA505A2D91F@JoycePC>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Donald, with my Casey ancestor (Daniel, b ~1760) the name Kersey was used
interchangeably with Casey in a deed from 1806 in Elbert Co., Georgia--both
spellings were used within the same document; yet earlier, say 1785-1790,
his name was spelled Casey, so it's not as if the spelling 'mutated' from
one to the other since it was never exclusively Kersey; in fact, that's the
only time I've seen mine spelled as Kersey, in that one document.
I've also seen instances where the spelling "Carsey" was used
interchangeably with Casey in earlier times, which kind of splits the
difference between Kersey and Casey. Just mentioning this for whatever it's
worth.
Best regards, Joyce Harris
-----Original Message-----
From: casey-bounces(a)rootsweb.com [mailto:casey-bounces@rootsweb.com] On
Behalf Of Donald E King
Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2008 5:06 PM
To: CASEY(a)rootsweb.com
Subject: [CASEY] Kers(e)y to Casey?
Hi -
Is it reasonable to expect that a 'Kers(e)y' surname may have
'mutated' into Casey?
In Louisa Co, VA, Alexander Kersey witnessed a Will for George Adams
and I believe that Keziah Casey married George's grandson John Adams
in Garrard Co, KY (adjacent to Jessamine Co, KY.).
Thanks,
Donald King
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End of CASEY Digest, Vol 3, Issue 15
************************************
--
Rita J. Casey, Ph.D
Department of Psychology
Wayne State University
5057 Woodward
Detroit, MI 48202
r.casey(a)wayne.edu
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