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Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/EFI.2ACEB/349.364.375.1
Message Board Post:
the spelling of surnames was not as exact in earlier days...my surname, Stevenson, within
my family line, has been spelled Stephenson, Stinson, Steavenson, Steveson...
my mother's maiden name, Spence, is likewise spelled Spense, Spens...Brewster is also
spelled Bruster, etc.
in the summer of 2000, my wife and i visited Cawdor Castle, near Inverness...talking with
one of the employees there (it is open to tourism in the summer), she confirmed that
Caddle, Caudill, Caudle were all names affiliated with the Clan Campbell of Cawdor, even
though contemporary records show only Caddel and Caddle...she even mentioned that
Caudle/Caudill might have been corruptions of Cawdor...if one hears the Scots dialect with
an English or American ear, it is easy to see how a name could be misspelled...especially
since not many of our ancestors that arrived on these shores were all that literate...in
that case, the spelling of the name was left to the official documenting their arrival in
the colonies...