Hi Christine Back in the old days, most people couldn't read or write or spell their own name (as it is often found on certificates by his or her mark instead of a signature), so it depended on the person at the registry office who wrote the information down as to what they thought was the right way it should or could have been spelt. With people coming from all over the world to the goldfields area and with different dialects and accents, it would also be spelt how the registrar heard it too. Some of the non-english names can have a lot of varied variants and some would look nothing like how it should have been spelt in the native language of the speaker. Regards Faye -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- Von: "Christine Warren" <[email protected]> Gesendet: 29.06.08 05:33:51 An: <[email protected]> Betreff: possible reasons for giving different surnames Looking for some ideas as to why people would purposely give variations on a name when registering births? Or were names, like ages, not as important as they are now? My great great grandparents had children born from the mid 1850s to the mid 1870s at a range of places on the Victorian goldfields. His name is Henry Hyams - but this was not a name he used when registering a child until 1871. In each case the name was very purposefully signed by either Henry or his wife Emily when the birth was registered and the signatures do not suggest they could not write or spell their names. Henry was not registered for the 1856 electoral roll so I assume he had no Miner's Right. When I discovered he was a convict late last year I thought perhaps he'd absconded but he served his whole sentence in Tasmania, including punishment time at Port Arthur, but had finished his sentence in 1851. In 1855 it was Hyands and his occupation was gold miner, as it was in 1857 when his occupation was gold digger. In 1859 it was Hynds, occupation miner. In 1860 it was back to Hyands, occupation miner. In 1863 and 1865 it was Hynds, occupation miner. In 1868 it was Hyms, occupation miner. Two unregistered children of Emily (possibly not Henry's) gave the surname Hymes when they married in 1869. In 1871 and 1873 he was Hyams, occupation farmer. (Inglewood) When he married Emily in 1880 he was Hyam, occupation miner and when he died in 1883 he was Hyams, occupation miner. Any ideas would be gratefully received. Christine ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message _________________________________________________________________________ In 5 Schritten zur eigenen Homepage. Jetzt Domain sichern und gestalten! Nur 3,99 EUR/Monat! http://www.maildomain.web.de/?mc=021114