Hi folks: I'm curious about something. When we as family historians research our given surnames, how many of us have been puzzled and surprised at the differences between the spelling in the 1800's or further and the spelling of today with our modern spelling rules. I would love to hear stories about surprises in the spelling of our respective surnames. I guess the most common story is that illiteracy was rampant, and given some of the more multi-syllabic names from Europe and right here in the USA, some names were simplified and Americanized, etc. I asked a cousin once in trying to decipher our name in the 1870's and 1880's (via soundex in the latter), did she ever wonder if DAUGHERTY/DOUGHERTY, and all of its vast varieites of spelling, was a probable surname that we are not paying attention to. We haven't really had a reason to go tramping over the path of this particular surname in researching, and I wondered if that was a mistake. My cousin sighed and said, "Yes, . . . I've thought of that." However, I could tell that was too arduous a task to even contemplate, let alone go in search of. Love to hear other reasons & other stories of the surname search and the delightful and unexpected surprises found as a family historian. Call me curious, Cyrille

Cyrille, Brashear may be the most misspelled surname. The first person with that name was Benjamin Brashear. He used the English version of his first name and anglicized his French surname so it would be pronounced properly. That was when he became a citizen of Maryland in 1663. When his widow died the name was spelled three different ways in her will. I have seen almost 50 (mis)spellings of the name. Sometimes there are several spellings for the same person. I suspect that illiteracy plus clerks attempting to spell it caused that. Have fun chasing names like that. Joe George Cyrille D Doutherd wrote: > Hi folks: > > I'm curious about something. When we as family historians research our > given surnames, how many of us have been puzzled and surprised at the > differences between the spelling in the 1800's or further and the > spelling of today with our modern spelling rules. > > I would love to hear stories about surprises in the spelling of our > respective surnames. I guess the most common story is that illiteracy > was rampant, and given some of the more multi-syllabic names from Europe > and right here in the USA, some names were simplified and Americanized, > etc. > > I asked a cousin once in trying to decipher our name in the 1870's and > 1880's (via soundex in the latter), did she ever wonder if > DAUGHERTY/DOUGHERTY, and all of its vast varieites of spelling, was a > probable surname that we are not paying attention to. We haven't really > had a reason to go tramping over the path of this particular surname in > researching, and I wondered if that was a mistake. > > My cousin sighed and said, "Yes, . . . I've thought of that." However, I > could tell that was too arduous a task to even contemplate, let alone go > in search of. > > Love to hear other reasons & other stories of the surname search and the > delightful and unexpected surprises found as a family historian. > > Call me curious, > Cyrille > > ==== AGS Mailing List ==== > Please do not forward or cross post messages to this list or from this list without the permission of the original author.