Getting the surname spelling right

[Bob Spiers]

They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but surely an old dog should remember the tricks he learnt as a pup. That is a roundabout way of saying this old dog fell for the most novice of genealogical data entering errors by failing to spot he had added a letter to a surname that completely changed its indexing status, and caused a dilemma far beyond the innocence of the mistake.

Setting the scene I had at long last found a credible spouse for a great grand Aunt by the name of James Haley (from Ireland). They had 5 children. I always enter new data first on my stand-alone PC (non internet) using Family Tree Legends (FTL) so all were duly added. In a later Census her spouse was shown as John Haley (also from Ireland) and 3 new children. (I found out when James died she moved in (no marriage found) with his brother John, but that is not relevant to the story). I duly added the new 'partner' and the 3 new children.

Back to the story: I entered James as Haley and the first child the same. However inadvertently, possibly because I believed the surname was crying out to be Hayley, the subsequent children was recorded as Hayley. I also entered John as Hayley and the 3 children likewise. I was totally unaware of this of course and was now ready to add the information into Ancestry and my Tribal pages. To commence I used the FTL index to locate the Haleys' and found but two, James and the first child. So what had happened to the others?

It is hard to imagine how this mystified me and yet when I reverted to searching on my Great Aunt and opening her page, there was James with the 5 children and I DID NOT SPOT THE ADDITIONAL 'Y'. I clicked on her second spouse/partner and found him with the 3 children. I could not for the life of me work out why 8 names were missing from the index. It took me ages to discover the problem was the spelling of the surname. I am reminded of the old computer saying of 'crap in=crap out' and by golly did this ring true. It was no big thing to correct but there is more than enough work to transfer data into my various data bases -thank goodness FTM syncs with Ancestry (for now at any rate)- without making silly mistakes like that. I am duly penitent.

 

[Gillian]

What with that and your virulent type of Man flu, you've been having a bad time, haven't you Bob. Let's hope the rest of the year runs more smoothly.

 

[Bob Spiers]

What with that and your virulent type of Man flu, you've been having a bad time, haven't you Bob. Let's hope the rest of the year runs more smoothly.

Thank you for those kind words Gillian, and I do believe I was likely affected by the onset of Man flu when I erred somewhat. All should be well soon and I too hope your year runs smoothly as well.

 

[Britjan]

The problems with getting the surname right can be almost insurmountable. For my surname at least there seems to have been a crucial change of one vowel somewhere between 1840- 1880. On my maternal side there is an "s" that seems to come and go on the end of a name, and the same with a prefix "O" from Irish ancestors. Then there's a very inconsiderate bunch consisting of two cousins of the same surname who married, a name that is shared with an earl, and a large city. I've learned to be philosophical about my own mistakes on top of these search conundrums and they do occasionally add to a happy result even without the added burden of "man 'flu'.
However it all pales with trying to look for some WWI soldiers of Ukrainian descent in Canadian census records. Even when they lived in the same household brother's names were spelled completely differently.

 

[Gillian]

Britjan's mention of WWI soldiers of Ukrainian descent with weird spellings in Canadian census records reminds me of a friend of a cousin in the US whose grandfather immigrated from Poland. At Ellis Island he was 'just another Polak' and that's remained the family's surname ever since. Now how on earth would they ever trace their ancestors? I somehow doubt that Ellis Island has a record of their correct surname, which probably had too many v's, w's and x's all bunched up together for them to cope with. Pollack is a fairly common surname, at least in the States. I wonder if they're all the descendants of Polaks.

 

[Bob Spiers]

On my maternal side there is an "s" that seems to come and go on the end of a name, and the same with a prefix "O" from Irish ancestors

I too have the prefix 'O' coming and going from my Irish O'Flyn line and in the end disappearing completely, but I wish they had made up their mind of it being Flyn or Flynn. My secondary paternal line of Westbury alternating with Wedgbury within the same sibling line really got me going in trying to fathom a reason. And what about the fun and games of a Twamley marrying a Twycross which apart from being tongue twisters in themselves, seems to have driven Census
Transcribers around the bend too. What's in a name indeed.

 

[peter]

Unfortunately there is no such thing as the 'correct' spelling of a surname!

 

[Heather]

I found this site very interesting for the origin and meanings of surnames

 

[Bob Spiers]

I found this site very interesting for the origin and meanings of surnames

Yes interesting but just a note of caution either do not click on the 'Links' section or even if you do decline to succumb to checking out the My Heritage database which you may later regret. (See 'Does anyone use the MyHeritage' discussion for more detail)

 

[peter]

I found this site very interesting for the origin and meanings of surnames

You need to take what it says with a pinch of salt - whilst the source of information isn't given, it is unlikely to be up to date, and recent works such as those by George Redmonds have made it clear that many of the origins given in older works are simply wrong. Even the Oxford Dictionary of English Surnames, a relatively recent book (and one that's on my bookshelf), rightly comes in for a lot of criticism from Redmonds.

 

[Bob Spiers]

You need to take what it says with a pinch of salt

Yes an exceedingly big one I think. I remember sending for a 'Spiers' illuminated name origin scroll (which included an Heraldic Coat of arms to someone with a similar name) way back when I first started to take an interest in Family Research. The coat of arms was just an appeal to vanity and the scroll although informative even then seemed nothing more than a generic trawl (Google fashion) of historical archives. It was a five minute wonder and although I am sure I kept it (I am a natural hoarder) cannot remember where. As far as I know it may have been exactly the same as the one included in Heather's in link.

 

[Gillian]

I looked up my maiden name Doherty and, to my knowledge, the explanation of the surname is correct. However, alerted to the dangers of My Heritage at the discussion "Does Anyone Use the My Heritage Website", the following link hit me straight in the eye: "MyHeritage has a powerful historical records search engine, SuperSearch. See how many Doherty records it finds." Another of the My Heritage tentacles?

 

[canadianbeth]

We have interesting name changes on my husband's side. According to one source when emigrating from Ireland "They all spelled their name McKigg except Alexander (hearsay) After emigrating to Canada they all changed the spelling to McKeage. Spelling could also have been McKaig" Three generations later, Leon's grandfather and 3 siblings (of 13) changed the spelling to MacKeage, while others left it as McKeage. I have extensive information of the family since emigrating to Canada, up to the generation before ours, but nothing before that.

I have seen my great grandfather's name spelled as Barratt and Barrett. And a different spelling of Bowyer as well, both on my mother's side. I have seen my grandmother's name as Dorothy Ann (the way my Dad wrote it) , Dorothy Annie (on his birth registration) and Annie Dorothy on another document. No further information on her, no matter how it is spelled.

 

[Bob Spiers]

At Ellis Island he was 'just another Polak' and that's remained the family's surname ever since.

That reminds me of one of my favourite films 'The Godfather' when the young 10 year old Vito (godfather to be) arrives at Ellis Island unaccompanied and is asked his name. The processing officer unable to get a response checks out the label pinned to his coat which shows Vito/Corleone (Vito from Corleone in Sicily) and duly records Vito Corleone by which name he is forever known. I am sure the film was true to actual events back in the 1800's with so many people turning up on boats from Europe and being unable to communicate with officials. So not surprising to learn many Polish immigrants had 'Polak' recorded as a surname.

 

[Bob Spiers]

Another of the My Heritage tentacles?

Yes Gillian I spotted the same thing and posted about it as well. MH gets everywhere believe me.

 

[Gillian]

One of my great great grandfathers was baptised as a Minott, married as a Minet and buried as a Minett.

 

[Bob Spiers]

One of my great great grandfathers was baptised as a Minott, married as a Minet and buried as a Minett.

Wow a name connection Gillian (I had to check it was you as you know what I am like with names) although in my Tree it wavers from Minett to Mynett but mostly the former. What is also a coincidence is I have just received one of my regular 'Ancestry Hints' (notified weekly by email from Ancestry relating to my Public Tree and which I find very useful). One of the names concerned a Mynett (in this case) ancestor and I had the page opened on my FTL Tree.

Just in case we do relate (which we both know is doubtful) my Minett connection can be traced from John Minett c1775 marrying a Sarah Smith, both from Worcestershire in 1796. Thereafter their son James marrying Sarah Camden in 1838 and the 'full monty' their daughter Sarah Minett (the changes to Mynett came via an offshoot line) marrying my Great Grandfather George Spiers (a Cabinet Maker) in Evesham 1860. They moved to Birmingham and one of their 9 children became my Grandfather. The rest as they say is history.

By the way you have a Minett to reply.

 

[Gillian]

By the way you have a Minett to reply.

Ha ha, Bob. VERY good.
However, very sadly, I have to report that, as far as I can tell, we're not related. My Minetts of the many spellings were from Cambridgeshire - the Isle of Ely and later Fordham in particular. Greatgreat-ggrandfather John 1776-1857 married Molly Waters in 1802. Their 10th and last child Elizabeth married my great-grandfather Theophilus Matthews in Whitechapel in 1851.

 

[Bob Spiers]

However, very sadly, I have to report that, as far as I can tell, we're not related

Thanks Gillian, and as I thought coincidence of name (you only have to think of Smith or Jones) is not enough and that strangely is the message I used to try to get across to MyHeritage contacts, who believed if you shared a surname you shared an ancestor.

 

[Bryman]

Thanks Gillian, and as I thought coincidence of name (you only have to think of Smith or Jones) is not enough and that strangely is the message I used to try to get across to MyHeritage contacts, who believed if you shared a surname you shared an ancestor.

This is a very common misapprehension and not just with MH. On the other hand, I am desperately trying to prove the exception to the rule, where I have made contact with another researcher with the same surname as me. We have each traced our ancestors back to adjacent (or even the same) Shropshire villages/hamlets but evidence of the common ancestor is sadly lacking in the parish registers of the 17th century. Our name is not Smith nor Jones but I am beginning to think that there must have been one of our namesakes in EVERY settlement at that time. Unfortunately, most of them had forenames of Richard, William, Thomas or Elizabeth, Mary, Sarah with little to identify them further.