Genealogy Chat

It has to be remembered that many didn't read or write, and so would not know what was being written by the 'official' filling in any record. Quite often it was recorded with whatever accent might have been used when declaring the name.

I have several marriage certificates with 'x' for the mark of the bride or groom. (My grandmother signed her first marriage certificate, was shown with an 'x' on the second. Either the vicar assumed she couldn't sign, or she didn't want to show up my grandfather, who couldn't write. She didn't have a problem with her third marriage, they both signed!)

Thanks to you all for your input. With the family I mentioned 1st I have 4 different spellings on certs and 4 on censuses. I have already changed the spelling once so I'm grateful for the advice and will leave it as it is. I'm sure I would never have found the family anyway without the help I received on this board. Am having trouble with Andrew Inett/Inight too so there might be a thread about him shortly. Thanks again.
Best Wishes Susan

If you use a program such as FTM, you can enter as many variations of name as you wish. However one is set as the "preffered" name.

Originally I used the spelling per the original document, but in some cases it became unweildy, particualrty when searching as it was easy to miss one.e.g
Baggott, Bagot, Baggot, Bagod;
Bettridge, Betteridge;
Goldthorp, Goldthorpe.

Apart from really old names, where the original spelling is likely to be more appropriate, these days I tend to use the modern spelling as the default.

At the end of the day, does it really matter? Do whatever you feel most comfortable with.

One of my lines has had, over the years, 5 spellings. It was a pain having to enter new surnames so I stuck to 'my' branch spelling for the lot. I do tell any contacts that they are free to disagrre when they are different.
B

This is a problem which a lot of us have to face.

On my Gedcom I keep the name given at birth, either on the christening records or births.

On my tree on GR, I put the name given at birth but change it later to the alternative name to see if I get any matches

When adding people to my tree I will use whichever spelling is most commonly used in the documents. However, I try not to get too hung up on spelling as I go further back. I try to put myself in my ancestor's shoes - spelling didn't seem to bother them much. I've found that to get too hung up on it (1) closes your mind to other spellings, possibly meaning you might miss a breakthrough because it's "not the right spelling" and (2) gives you something extra to worry about, as well as why g-g-g-father married his niece/step daughter/auntie, where g-g-g-mother was on census night 1861, etc,etc, etc,..... ;-)

Rob

Yes, I tend to do with what is on the records, although it can be confusing.

For instance, in 1853 my great-great-grandma was born Mary Ann Dinnis. In 1861, she and her family were recorded as "Dennis". When she had an illegitimate baby at 18, she called him George Barnett "Denniss". Then she got married as "Mary Ann Denniss". So I'm never quite sure how to record her name. (I think it is down as "Denniss" on my tree on here".)

I too have a problem with a spelling of names
My great grandmother on her marriage certificate signed her name as Jessup, her father on the same certificate was spelt Jessop.
On all the census they are spelt Jessop. but that was down to the enumerator
On her christening it is spelt Jessup.
So which spelling do I go by??
By the same token her husband was spelt Woolf on the marriage cert but their daughter, (my grandmother)and her siblings together with his parents were known as Wolfe.
The spelling is only as good who records it.
As my family came from a line of agricultural labourers and probably illiterate they had to rely on learned people to record their details and of course that varied from one record to another.
Not sure how to remedy this problem.

Carol

Thanks for that Julie.
Susan

Susan

I have gone with what it said on the document, ...I have Bevan also spelt..Bevans,Beven & Bevens

Julie

I was interested in Lindsey's reply to Linda G's thread "Don't people do funny things to their Tree?" I have one name that I know through 2 GR contacts has resulted in 2 similar but different surnames in this generation. Also one of these contacts gave me the mediaeval version of the name which isn't on her tree. I have found the mediaeval form on Pallots.She hasn't put any of the alternatives on her tree. My most recent one is Andrew Inight c 1800. All his children have that spelling at baptism but he, on his marriage is Inett. What would most of you put on your Tree? Thanks.
Susan