I was interested in the comment about Biblical names. An ancestor
was buried in Canada with Asahel Roberts. I m sure he would have
emigrated from the Bala area but can find no trace of him so far.
Has anyone come across this name in their research - (and I don't
mean Roberts!)
David Evan Roberts
On 4 Apr 2008, at 10:26, I Thompson wrote:
What you show merely reflects the recording of the name heard by
the priest or whoever else was making the record. I don't think
that at this time anyone would differentiate between "Robert" and
"Roberts" as a surname. Equally, the priest may have made a
scribbled note for later copying into the register at home.
You may see names abbreviated eg "Wm" for "William" or
"Williams",
"Jno" for "John" or "Jonathan"; that doesn't mean, of
course as you
know, that the person went about calling himself "Wm" or "Jno"!
The question about whether your ancestor was likely to use a
patronymic form really depends on where in Wales and what social
class. So, broadly speaking, those more Anglicised parts of Wales
adopted fixed surnames earlier than the more northerly and
westerly; the middle class and upwards adopted earlier across the
board. Most people adopted fixed surnames between 1750 and 1850.
There is a modern trend towards their re-use.
So if your ancestor was from Merioneth and was a yeoman or "less",
he would, in common with most of the population there, be using a
patronymic. However, that does not mean that one can necessarily
assume that his father was called Robert. This is a very
complicated area!
This fact makes research backwards very dificult unless the family
were rooted to a particular farm (as owners, leaving wills). I am
sure that I am not the only one to have "got stuck" on one line
owing to this fact. The only way one can be half sure of earlier
ancestors otherwise is if thay used some of the fantastic or
biblical names like Hercules, Caesar, Isaac, Job, Saul that are
sometimes seen and might be (in the case of the biblical names)
signs of early non-conformism.
How to record these names in a genealogy program? You could try
Robert(s). Or, like when dealing with early spellings like
"Rycharde" or "Ricardus", "update" it to
"Roberts". I think "Robert
(s)", though, sums the variation up enough for others to make sense
of what you have found out.
Yours,
Ian
London
> From: jagrwi(a)comcast.net> To: wls-merionethshire(a)rootsweb.com>
> Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2008 17:13:46 -0700> Subject: [MER] Naming
> patterns> > I am trying to determine when the patronymic versus a
> surname seems to apply in this family. The baptisms take place in
> the mid 1700s. I've listed the parent's names as shown in the
> baptism records. My questions are:
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