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Spelling Variations
How many of us have heard
or worse yet have said it ourselves, "My ancestor only
spelled his/her surname one way. So, that person can not
possibly be related to me?" Yes, I too am guilty. But,
what we must remember is, our ancestor did not have and
does not have sole control over how their name was and is
spelled.
Believe it or not,
but spelling was not standardized until recently. And even
at that, is English really standardized when American and
British spellings still varies? Here are just a few
examples: airplane-aeroplane; harbor-harbour; gray-grey.
In colonial times, spelling
was phonetic and varied widely. For example if a surname
had a "k" sound, as in Radamaker, it may have been spelled
with a "ch", as in Radamacher. The problem of spelling
variations was further exasperated if our ancestors could
not read or write. Then the spelling of our ancestors name
would be recorded at the whim of the town clerk, clergyman
and/or census taker who were often times not particular
how the name was recorded. Thus it is not uncommon to find
several spelling variations for the same person.
Even if our ancestor only
spelled his/her name one way, we need to account for the
errors of others. This is especially true when using
printed material such as newspapers and old books. Early
typesetters weren't the best spellers and often times
misspelled names, places and other common words. In fact I
have wondered if some of the typesetters did not have a
touch of dyslexia. For example, if your name contains an "ie",
it might also have been spelled as an "ei", so it maybe
worth checking both spellings as in Sieg and Seig. Another
type of error generated by others is found when people
transcribe old record such as wills, deeds, census records
and other written material. Often times a transcriber may
have difficulties transcribing the old script and may
misinterpret a name.
Or perhaps, we may have an
ancestor who is just not consistent. That is true in the
case of one of my ancestors from Westmoreland County, PA.
He had a habit of spelling his name as Pomeroy as I have
know it. But, every once in a while he forgets the e and
spelled it Pomroy.
So be mindful of variant
spellings when working with a surname. It was not just
your ancestor that had control over how his/her name was
spelled but rather many other people who could of
contributed to other variations in the spelling.
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