Genealogy Chat

Any tips on how to find the correct spelling of a surname. I have Foden/Fawden/Fauding/Falding for my grandmother, but can't decide which is the right one. Any help appreciated.

There's probably no such thing as a right spelling. Names changed over the decades due largely to people being illiterate, and later spelling it as it sounded, often in a local dialect.

I have a lady that is a Bevens....her Dad is down as Bevans ....But i have her recorded how her surname was spelt at her birth

The most 'correct' one is probably the most recent - unless her birth was registered, in which case, that would be the one to use.

BUT - as long as you know you have the details of the correct individual, it doesn't really matter too much, except when looking for the family on census returns, and then you can use 'soundex'.

I, too, have variations of one particular surname - HervyHervie/Harvy/Harvie/Harvey. It has evolved through the centuries, and is now consistently Harvey

Madmeg is right. Names changed over the years, mostly due to illiteracy. The census officer or registrar, or vicar would hear the name verbally and write it down however it sounded. You will have to be aware of all posible (and some seemingly impossible!) variations. Flick's right too - Soundex helps with Internet searching.
Good Luck.

Jacquie

One of my family names - Cattermole, began life (in the parish records) in 1600 and somethng as Kackermoulle! The next one was Kakermull - and so it slowly changed over the years.

I worked forward & backwards, looking at the original records in the church ( they didn't move far - one side of the street to the other! LOL) to determine the Cattermoles were descended from the Kackermoulles!!

Kathleen

If you use Ancestry entering the surname as fo*n* , that's to say FO(star)N(star) will find all the combinations of the surname you are seeking. As this will also find the names of many other surnames that match this criteria you will need to filter them out by birthplace, year of birth etc.

Michael

My grandfather's surname was Schofield

so was his father's, and his grandfather's

We came to a halt with Benjamin Schofield, born ca 1814, died ca 1854

Two of us worked together last year, and eventually discovered that Benjamin was born in Birstall Yorkshire, not Oldham Lancashire, as we had believed.


It turned out that Benjamin's father was Scholefield, Benjamin was baptised as Scholefield in 1814 in Birstall

The family seemingly moved to Oldham, and became Schofield, possibly in the 1820s, and certainly before 1830

One of Benjamin's siblings changed the spelling back to Scholefield sometime in the 1850s. His descendents have retained that spelling.

Benjamin's descendents have retained Schofield, and so have such descendents of other siblings that we have been able to find.


There is no clue as to why the name was changed, or why the one child went back to Scholefield.


Just one of those things




sylvia

Sylvia

One common reason that the spelling of surnames changed is simply because a vicar or priest decided to spell it a giving way in the parish records or other church records. After 1837 the same reason would have applied to the local registrar

In the fist half of the 19th centuary iliteracy was still widespread so many people would simply have not known how their surname was spelt. Even if they could read and write, due to the social conventions at the time it's highly unlikely that someone would tell an "official" like a vicar or registrar they had made a mistake. Grammatical rules didn't really exist for the general poplulation at the time. People that could write often wrote as things sounded rather than by any other criteria.

Michael

Michael

I do know that ....... but this seems to have been a rather more deliberate change of spelling

Most of the men were mechanics, going all the way back to Benjamin's father, and thus literate. All could at least sign their names.

They presumably moved to Oldham because there was more work in the mills there .....


but it does make you wonder whether there was another reason why they moved!



sylvia

My son in laws grandfather totally change their name, simply because, coming from Ireland to Liverpool, with a gaelic surname, no-one could spell or pronounce it!!
Also know of 3 people whose grandparents came over during the war. One family were Russian Jews, the other two were German Jews.
Their grandparents didn't exactly anglicise ther names - just changed them. Their surnames are Green, Davies and Davies - and the two Davies families are in no way connected - one's descended from Russian grandparents, the other from German!!
None of them now follow the Jewish faith.