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I hope that this is not a duplicate to anyone, but thought that it
might be of use for those of you that are interested in Genealogy ... I
have removed the mailer's name for their privacy.
I received this from one of genealogy mailing lists that I am
subscribed to, and thought that you might find it interesting and/or
enlightening.
--
Jon Kilburn
homepages: http://www.kilburn.org/
email: jkilburn(a)ameritech.net
or: jon(a)kilburn.org
----------
SPELLING DOESN'T COUNT
by Donna Przecha
Frequently when you ask beginning researchers what surnames they are
working on they will say, "Browne - with an e" or "Vaughan - that's
an" or "Prichard - without the t." While it may seem that they are
being extra careful to get the right family, they may be making a big
mistake. When it comes to old documents, spelling doesn't count,
especially with names. Instead of narrowing the field of research with
exact spelling, it is important to enlarge it as much as possible with
every possible spelling. One researcher said she could add five
generations onto another researcher's line, but the second person
wouldn't accept the information because the name was spelled Browne and
her family only used Brown.
Prior to Samuel Johnson publishing the first Dictionary of the English
Language in 1755, there were no spelling rules. Even today there really
are no rules for spelling names. You can spell your name any way you
want. With modern records, once you have a social security card (now
issued at birth), a birth certificate and a driver's license or
passport, it is usually too much trouble to vary the spelling. Records
are computerized, can easily be crosschecked and if everything doesn't
match exactly, you don't exist! While a person is pretty much committed
to the parents' way of spelling the surname, it is easy to see there are
even fewer rules nowadays for spelling first names. Sherry may be
Sherree, Sheri or even Shayree. Laurie could be Lori, Laurey, Lauree,
Laury, Lory, Lorie, Loree, etc.
Unusual given names might be spelled phonetically in documents. Given
names, then as now, often had nicknames. While Liz or Beth for Elizabeth
is easy to understand, in many cases, the nickname used in the 17th
century does not stand for the same name today. Polly was a common
nickname for Mary. Marguerite might be called Daisy since the former is
the French word for the flower. For more information, see Sue Roe's list
of nicknames.
Also consider nicknames during the research process.
As previously mentioned, nowadays people are usually consistent in
spelling their surnames. Why weren't our ancestors consistent? There are
two big
reasons: 1) The ancestor may not have been literate and 2) the record
was created by another person. If the ancestor was unable to read and
write, he may not have known how to spell his own name at all. Even if
he had memorized the spelling, a literate person recording the
information may not have asked. Records we use for research are mostly
church records, civil records, wills and census records. These were
usually written by a non-family member - a clergyman, census
enumerator, town or county clerk. The recorders may have thought they
knew best how to spell a name and did not even bother to ask. The
illiterate farmer would not presume to correct an educated minister. For
more information on common variations and why they occurred, see
Genealogy.com's Name and Word Spellings.
You should write down every possible spelling variation and check each
one. This can be time consuming in an alphabetical list (much easier if
it is
Soundex) but it is essential. The name Truesdell can begin Trus or Trues
and end with dale, del, dell or dle - quite a few possibilities.
However, one essential marriage record was recorded as Trasdle - and
missed because the researcher (yours truly) did not cast a wide enough
net! The family, of English origin, lived for a while in Quebec where
there are many French families named Truedell. Strangely enough, these
two names never seemed to be used interchangeably. However, it is
necessary to scan the Truedells in an index looking for any with English
given names. You may find in an area two surnames that are very similar
but it almost seems that everyone knew they were different and made a
special effort to keep them straight in records.
Another reason for spelling variations could be an accent when saying
the name. It is very difficult to know what type of accent a person had
300 years ago. One name that has two different spellings is Royce and
Rice. To American ears this seems very different, but anyone who has
watched an English TV program is probably aware that people with heavy
regional accents may say "royte" for "right." On the other hand, if you
have watched Archie Bunker on TV he routinely says "chice" (rhyming with
rice) for "choice." So either spelling, Royce or Rice, might be
pronounced either way, depending on the accent. If this can happen with
a one syllable English name, think of the possibilities with foreign
names.
When researchers find letters or wills that they believe were written by
their ancestors, they are sometimes dismayed by the spelling and grammar
they find - "was borned" in the family Bible is not unusual. Since
there were no spelling rules prior to 1755 in England or, 1828 in the
U.S. when Noah Webster published the first American dictionary, you
should not worry about spelling. Prior to 1755 everyone spelled as they
deemed fit. Since English words come from Latin, Greek, Anglo-Saxon,
German, Danish, French and a host of other languages, there are many
different ways of forming the same sound, depending on which language
rules you are following. One scholar might have felt it appeared more
learned to use Latin or French roots whereas a more practical person
might feel a word should be spelled as it sounded - bot, not bought.
(This argument continues to this day with many linguists proposing
radical changes in spelling so that words are spelled as they sound.
This would make spelling easier for future generations but would create
years of confusion for those who learned the old rules.) Even in the
19th century it is obvious from looking at letters and wills that
standard spelling still was not widely accepted.
Since no spelling rules existed prior to 1755 in England and 1828 in
the U.S., expect to find a broad range of spelling and grammar styles.
Census, parish and vital records usually contain fairly standard
information so spelling of words is not too much of a problem. Some of
these records may contain occupations that may be spelled in a variety
of ways - joyner or joiner (carpenter). The bigger problem usually is
an obsolete occupation or name. There are several Web pages that will
help you decipher cordwainer
(shoemaker) or husbandman (tenant farmer).
Beginners often make two common mistakes when reading handwritten
documents. They create spelling errors where none exist because they do
not know that some letters used to be written differently. The word we
usually read as "ye" as in Ye Olde Shoppe is not a strange, outdated
word at all. The letter that appears to be a y is actually a character
known as a thorn that stood for the letters "th." "Ye" is actually a
very modern "the" using an outdated symbol. In both typeset and
handwritten documents, it appeared that words with two esses were
spelled fs. (For more information on reading old handwriting see Sabina
J. Murray's Deciphering Old Handwriting.) The letter that appears to be
an f is actually the accepted way of writing the first s. It was never
intended to represent an f. The silent e on the end of almost any word
was common. Doubling letters was also popular - "shoppe" being a good
example of both. Perhaps the writers felt these extra letters gave the
word more substance and somehow made it more important!
Familiarize yourself with characters that are no longer used in
everyday language.
Reading wills can be a genealogist's biggest challenge. They will
probably be handwritten so you will have to try to decipher the script.
Spelling will be inconsistent with words being spelled differently
within the same document. The terms will often be archaic so not only
will you not know the correct spelling, you might not know what it is
even when spelled correctly. One very helpful publication is A Glossary
of Household, Farming and Trade Terms from Probate Inventories by
Rosemary Milward (Derbyshire Record Society, Occasional Paper No. 1).
While this applies primarily to terms in English wills, many of those
terms will be found in American wills. It contains many variations for
some of the words. For example, mattress could be mateshess, materes,
materessy, matrice, matrysey or ploughs might appear as plows, plogthes,
ploes, plawes, plaghes, plowgthes, plose, ployths or plosse. You need to
be careful in sounding out words because it would be easy to confuse
ploughs in one of the above variations with pillows which could be
peylowes, pyllas, pillues or pelowys. Unfortunately, in wills items are
often listed with no description and no context to give a hint where or
how it was used. While these terms are modern words when spelled one
way, you will run across terms that have no modern equivalent. You might
wonder what a joynt table or cabinet might be. It simply meant a piece
of furniture made by a joiner. A maunde (mande, mawnde) was a wicker
basket and a portmantle (portmantue, portmanoe) a trunk, words you might
not find in a modern dictionary.
When you are working with words you know might be out of date and
spelled differently, you must be very careful. If you see "lyckerd
butts", you might assume that they are a number of casks (butts) storing
alcoholic beverages but it actually refers to the tanning of leather
used for soles of shoes.If you assume the "cressett" is a reference to
the family crest, you will be disappointed to learn it is a small iron
vessel to hold oil to be burned as a torch. While a sake, secke or seike
is what it appears - a sack - sacke is the name of dry Spanish white
wines imported from early in the 16th century. Noggin or nogging is not
a head, but a small drinking vessel. It can also refer to a small
quantity of liquor. Hassocks are not footstools but tufts of rushes or
coarse grass.
When dealing with unfamiliar terms and spellings it is best to seek
guidance from an experienced researcher.
When dealing with unusual terms and spelling, it might be a good idea to
consult someone more experienced in that field to make sure you are not
starting down the wrong path that could cause you much wasted time and
money.
About the Author
I began genealogy in 1970 when we were living in Ogden, Utah for a short
time. I was immediately hooked when, on my first visit to the local
Family History Center, I found my great-grandparents in the 1850 Ohio
census. I have been researching ever since on my own family and for
others. I soon recognized the value of computer programs for keeping
track of the data. I was a founding member of the Computer Genealogy
Society of San Diego and editor of the newsletter. I have written a
third party manual on ROOTS III and, with Joan Lowrey, authored two
guides to genealogy software. Using ROOTS III and WordPerfect, I have
written several family history books for others, but have yet to stop
researching long enough to complete my own family history!
==== TNWAYNE Mailing List ====
Visit the Wayne County, Tennessee Genealogy and History Page at
http://www.netease.net/wayne
This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Surnames: CLEGHORN
Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/zIJ.2ACIB/106
Message Board Post:
Looking for anyone with more info on:
Robert Cleghorn, b. 1835, married to
Rosanna or Rosina Shergold, b. 1844
Children:
William Robert Cleghorn, b. 15 APR 1867, Wandsworth, London
Eleanor Cleghorn, b. 1870, Strand, London
Arthur Cleghorn, b. 01 MAY 1872, Strand, London
Thanks!
--Joslyn Cleghorn Gray (JLCGray(a)aol.com)
This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/zIJ.2ACIB/44.1.1.2.1
Message Board Post:
Thanks, I will try to start making contacts soon. I do not have info on this so it is very much appreciated.
Thanks again,
Kim