>From: "Nancy McL" <[email protected]> > >Re: [BORDER] New memberMaybe we are attaching too much importance to the >way the surname was spelled in 17th century Scotland? This is very true. Essentially, if a name will SOUND the same while spelled in a given way, it will be written that way at some point. Remember also that one of the most mobile groups of people at that time was clergymen, so you might have a parishioner giving their name with one accent and someone accustomed to a different region writing it down. I actually have a (18th century) baptismal record where the Minister used 3 spellings in a single entry (for the child, the father and the fact that the child was named for a grandparent)! Once you get back beyond the 20th century, you need to switch your brain to "fuzzy spelling" mode - and remember that Soundex (based on american accents) don't always pick these things up. If you can't find someone, try any reasonable (and halfway unreasonable) variation. Someone else recently pointed me to a wedding I couldn't find - the groom had been listed as Robson and Robertson.. The soundex didn't pick it up, and neither did the Scotland's People search engine. Lesley Robertson _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail

George Stephenson, the railway engineer's forebears, from Oxnam, have been written up as Steevenson, Stivenson, Stevason, Steenson and Stinson. Stinson was adopted by some border families who emigrated to North Carolina. Rosemary Richardson Date sent: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 10:12:28 +0200 From: "Lesley Robertson" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [BORDER] New member > >From: "Nancy McL" <[email protected]> > > > >Re: [BORDER] New memberMaybe we are attaching too much importance to the > >way the surname was spelled in 17th century Scotland? > > This is very true. Essentially, if a name will SOUND the same while > spelled in a given way, it will be written that way at some point. > Remember also that one of the most mobile groups of people at that time > was clergymen, so you might have a parishioner giving their name with one > accent and someone accustomed to a different region writing it down. I > actually have a (18th century) baptismal record where the Minister used 3 > spellings in a single entry (for the child, the father and the fact that > the child was named for a grandparent)! Once you get back beyond the 20th > century, you need to switch your brain to "fuzzy spelling" mode - and > remember that Soundex (based on american accents) don't always pick these > things up. If you can't find someone, try any reasonable (and halfway > unreasonable) variation. Someone else recently pointed me to a wedding I > couldn't find - the groom had been listed as Robson and Robertson.. The > soundex didn't pick it up, and neither did the Scotland's People search > engine. Lesley Robertson > > > _________________________________________________________________ > Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. > http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail > > ______________________________ --------------------- London, UK [email protected]