Genealogy Chat

Hi Carole, just reading through your thread,and it occured to me that if you say Musgrave with a stinking head cold, it might sound like Muscrop.

We all, I think, come across differing spellings of names on our trees, and I for one, have learned to follow my instincts, they are nearly always right.

Thank you Kate
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . for those words of reassurance. I think you are right; keep researching along this track, but add 'the note' with every new addition. That way, hopefully, no one else will take the information on board as 100% fact.? Or will they?

I have been saying the names and I have almost convinced myself. . . . . No matter my husband thinks I've gone mad, as he heard me muttering away, but knew there was no one else in the house.
Thanks again
Carole

Just by saying it in some strong accents I don't think it's that much of a leap to hear it as Moscrov with a soft v. Try a bad scottish accent (mine is really bad!). So it's probably not much more of a jump to a harder last syllable, and voila - Moscrop. And with poor handwriting | can see how they could resemble each other on written documents. But I absolutely understand your dislike of the uncertainty, things like that really niggle at me. I guess the only way round is to have a note to the effect that the line from there back is missing a definitive proof, but giving all your (very strong, by the sounds of it) reasons for believing so.

Kate

Thank you all for your help to date.
Time for bed I think.
It is almost 01:15 here in Spain!

Fabulous to find two more answers have arrived whilst I was trying to explain my dilemma to Terri.
I take on board all you say, Kate and Kath, and I agree with you. Oh dear, I suppose one does have to make a leap of faith sometimes, and just go with ones instincts but I hate the thought that I might be being influenced by wishful thinking.
I will do whatever I can to substantiate this name variation before I add these people to my tree! But 450 years is a long time and I suppose I am lucky to have found what I have?

Thanks Terri
No luck there unfortunately. The Musgrave ancestor I am researching is pre civil registration.
We know he existed in Durham, as we have his will. Other than that we can find absolutely no record of any sort for a William Musgrave, in that particular area at that time. Nor can we find any birth references for any of the Musgrave beneficiaries mentioned in the will ... but we do know their whereabouts later, at the time of their marriages.
However, there is a family Moscrop, who lived only ten miles distant, and their children had the names of the Musgrave will beneficiaries and their ages would seem to correspond.
That, plus a few other coincidences, plus Joiners inclusion of Moscrop with Musgrave makes me wonder if we are looking at the same family but apart from the initial letter of the name I can see no reason to lump Musgrave and Moscrop together?

As a lot of people were illiterate they couldn't check what was being written down by someone else, so spellings changed according to who was doing the recording. Accents played a big part in how things were written down too.

Kate's idea of playing around with the name is a good one - try using different accents, putting more or less emphasis on a particular part of the name, saying it quickly or slowly - all can make the name appear different.

Kath. x

I sometimes find it helps to sort of play around with the word - saying it clearly, mumbling it, putting the stress on different syllables etc.

One branch of my family were variously spelt Masco, Mascow, Mascoe (all of which could be similar sounding), Myerscough, Maskew, and even Maskae and Maskea so I would guess some pronounced it to rhyme with "cow", some to rhyme with "few", some to rhyme with "so" etc.

Also - sometimes this works with names starting with H or A - saying it as if it starts with an H when it has an A (or vice versa) can work. This is why I've got another family who vary between Arsnep, Hearsnep, Haresnape and Hearsnip etc. (Substituting I for E - or E for I - can work, too.)

try this: www.freebmd.rootsweb.com

Carol, I have learnt that spelling of names and dates vary. The year of births etc can be different by a few years on one doc to another, so you just have to sift through using varients of names and dates. Hope this helps.
Terri

Thanks Somerset Girl
I have read good things about The Surname Suggestion List by Matthew Combs, but unfortunately the download it is NOT Mac compatible!

Is there a list anywhere of accepted surname variations?
Whilst searching through Joiner's Marriage Index, I came upon Moscrop in amongst the Musgraves.
Subsequent research suggests, quite strongly, that this could be the Musgrave ancestor I'm looking for ... but the two names seem vastly different to me!!!
Can anyone please point me in the direction of a list, or does anyone have any thoughts on the subject?
Thanks in advance.
Carole