Genealogy Chat

Thanks Crista - that confirms my cousin-in-law's assessment. We're coming to the conclusion it must be a pet-name version of the surname. Just another little diversion to add to the confusions awaiting the unwary family tree researcher! Christine

Hi Christine, The Elizabeth I found was the widow of Edward. His first wife was Kezia. Crista

Thanks, all, for your thoughts. The G-G'mother's surname was Scantlebury (there's a name to conjure with!). I've had another look at the inscription, and the script really does look like a K rather than an R: there's a main downstroke, and then the top of the other stroke seems to start top-R, away from the main downstroke, comes down to the mid-downstroke, loops around and carries on down to bottom-R. This leaves an open top, where an R would loop round from the left of the main downstroke, across the top before coming back in to form the closed loop of the top-half. The only other letter which is doubtful is the "a" which is open enough to be a "u", making it "Kuckitt" - which gets no Google-hits either. Cackett/Cackitt does seem a possibility - someone at church this morning said she had a nursing-tutor with that surname. Maybe the K is a South-West variant. Maybe some of the census Rackett/Rackitts are mistranscribed from the source docs. (Must look into that possibility.) It also occurs to me (as I look at another one of my mis-keyed typings) that the name must be related to Reckitt (as in "& Colman"). Maybe she wasn't from Meva - I don't think that all the Scantleburys were - there's evidence for them coming from nearer Plymouth way. Perhaps I should try putting the name into Ancestry (I only have the free access, but I might find something) and 1881. I'll come back to look again if I see any more postings. Thanks, all, again. Christine PS Just got an e-mail from my cousin-in-law, who has established that g-g'mother had a paternal Aunt Elizabeth who was second wife (in time for the inscription) of Edward Rackett. That favours the child-garbled pet-name scenario. I'll not quite close my mind to other possibilities, although I shan't be looking hard.

Hi Christine I've noticed with old handwriting that a K can sometimes look like an R so could it be Rackitt? Jeanette x

Christine, I used to know someone by the name of Cackett, in the Lancashire area. June

Christine, What's the G grandmother's name? The K could be an R. There's an Elizabeth Rackett in Mevagissey on the 1881 and 1891 census records. Search the LDS and the only Racketts in Cornwall are all from Mevagissey. Crista

i once knew a girl at school called carol cackett, but thats about it have you looked in a phone directory to see if theres any more ways. brenda x

Hi Have just got access to husband's family Bible (maternal side). The inscription to his great-grandmother is from "Aunt Kackitt" and it's signed "E K", dated 2 July 1877. The family lived in Mevagissey, Cornwall. It appears to have been a thirteenth birthday present. I've looked and looked. The copper-plate script is very neat. I cannot get any other interpretation of the name. There are no hits if I put it into Google, nor any incidences of the name (so far) on GR. Has anyone else come across this as a surname? My only other guess is that it's a family version of her real name - that perhaps her real name got garbled by the g-g-mother as a young child and the garbled version was retained as a family-pet-name. Any other ideas out there? Thanks, Christine