Genealogy Chat

My gg grandmother was caroline ellender. On her birth cert and marriage cert it says father name joseph ellender but...... on Joseph's marriage cert to her mother mary it says the surname is ellener. Do you think that it was misspelt on the marriage cert? Mary could not write as her x is her sig. Joseph has signed his name on the marriage cert as ellener (I think as just comparing the writing on the rest of the cert it looks like the same writing so maybe he could not write either) Or do you think that maybe the D was inserted sometime after the marriage? Also Mary's maiden name is stated as Cox on the birth cert but it looks like cosp on marriage cert. The 'x' drops below the line like a 'p'. If anyone has experience reading Mr Plow's writing from Charlton parish church in dover please let me know!!!!! OH they got married 25/02/1861. The 1861 census has their surname as elenor!But 1871 census has ellenDer

Hi Suzanne 1. What anyone on this site THINKS someone wrote or did is just an opinion. It's impossible to KNOW sometimes whether variations in spelling are mistakes or deliberate changes. 2. From my own experience, spelling is a flexible thing. It was only fairly recently that the majority of people became literate and that the amount of regulation/form-filling etc has led to a demand for consistency. So I have these variations in my tree, just to show how things can alter: Maling Melins Mealing Mealins Malins Chouns Chowndes Chowns Chown [see, an extra d!] Higho Heyho Hiho Hyho Hegho Smoothey Smoothy Mathews Matthews Emits Emmets Emmetts Emmet Emmett nell

Wow thats some different spellings. How on earth did you manage to trace that! I'm pretty sure I'm right but am after other opinions none the less. THanks for replying!

Suzanne Well 2 ways really. On censuses, if the same family is in the same village, all children same first names and birthyears, father same occupation etc its a pretty good cinch its the same family, whatever the surname. If its unusual, like Chouns/Chowns, there is only ONE likely family! After researching a bit, you get a feel for if its the right lot or not, but I always try to back it up. My gt gt grandmother Ann was baptised as Maling and it says Maling on her marriage cert, but Mealing on her son's birth cert and Mealing in the censuses for her family 1851-71. After that, the children all left home and took their own special variant with them! nell

LOL yes i know what you mean when you say you get a feeling that its right, I think I'm right as it all matches really apart from the spelling.