Dear Listers, Have you ever returned to information that you are familiar with, to have a flash of illumination and see it with new eyes? This happened to me this week, and I feel that I have gained some fresh insight into this area. I had been looking into the earlier history of my PARRITT family and to my bemusement had found the name spelt every which way; differing within siblings of the same family, or in various documents naming the same person. All the vowels had a turn and the Rs and Ts could be single or double. Even my grandfather was PARROTT at his baptism, but had become PARRITT at his marriage! That led me to wondering why this was so, and I concluded that the vicar, curate , parish clerk or census enumerator had often to rely on what they heard, spoken in the prevailing local dialect. Not easy for a relatively well educated person to penetrate the local burr! And as for the parish clerk his spelling may not have been equal to it! Now why didn't the person concerned object to the mis-spelling? Unfortunately It was almost certain that he /she had no literacy skills---and couldn't read or write; and few could write their own name. So any spelling changes stood, because they were undetected. We find it hard to envisage a society where very few were literate. I am talking about the lowest strata of society, and my Ag. Lab. forebears came from the bottom of the heap. You wonder at the lack of curiosity and inability to recognise the "pattern" of your own name, but when sheer survival is the most urgent thing on your mind, there is no room for mulling on such matters. A full belly, and a roof over your head is of more importance! Even after attendence at school was a requirement, for many rural families attendance was very patchy. As I see the very little ones in my family spontaneously recognising alphabet letters, or their own names, at a very early age, I marvel at the illiteracy of the poorer classes in earlier times. That is, until I remind myself that poor nutrition and constant deprivation would certainly dull their minds. The potential was there but the conditions were against any development. Our modern children have everything in their favour for absorbing information as they are well nourished -------surrounded by books, various media and have interesting environment/experiences. In the past children were often required to weed, pick up stones and perform other menial tasks in order to appease the farmer landlord. A tired child would have little energy left to show interest in learning and in books! It is a situation which I found hard to fully appreciate, but since I have thought more about it, so many reasons for the way things were have become apparent .I hope that I now view my family history with a little more sympathy and understanding. Certainly, I appreciate my good fortune in being a child of the 20th century, as I was born a "bookworm".and had the facilities to feed my addiction! Regards, Muriel.

Muriel has discovered anew what many of us have come across. I had trouble finding the forebears of my EAVER grandmother until I found in a Census record that they came from Hungerford, Berks. Upon investigating the records there I found that the name was really HEAVER. As is still quite usual the initial H got dropped and as they were also illiterate they did not correct any writer of the name spoken as EAVER. That missing "H" is still very much around in the London area in this day and age! Barbara On 29-Sep-07, at 6:57 AM, pollyp wrote: >

Sadly, I feel we are gradually reverting to illiteracy! the number of e-mails and letters i get with no punctuation capitalisation and ridled with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors?i wunder weather it is me what is doing it wrongly and i am sure that many of you have experienced a similar decline in standards to I blame it, in part, on the use of text messaging, as well as falling standards in schools. But, my question is: How do these people get job interviews, when they are obviously not filling in the application forms themselves, or writing their own CV's? Someone said to me the other day: "Does it matter, as long as you can read it?" Yes, It bolody does!! I am pretty good at decyphering e-mails, to make them read as they are meant, but should I have to spend an extra 2 minutes, reading each and every one, just to make sense of them, when a little forethought would eliminate that? Thank goodness for the delete key! OK. Soapbox put away now! Ian -----Original Message----- From: pollyp <[email protected]> To: ENG-BANBURY-AREA <[email protected]> Sent: Sat, 29 Sep 2007 11.57am Subject: [BAN] The whys and wherefores! Dear Listers, Have you ever returned to information that you are familiar with, to have a flash of illumination and see it with new eyes? This happened to me this week, and I feel that I have gained some fresh insight into this area. I had been looking into the earlier history of my PARRITT family and to my bemusement had found the name spelt every which way; differing within siblings of the same family, or in various documents naming the same person. All the vowels had a turn and the Rs and Ts could be single or double. Even my grandfather was PARROTT at his baptism, but had become PARRITT at his marriage! That led me to wondering why this was so, and I concluded that the vicar, curate , parish clerk or census enumerator had often to rely on what they heard, spoken in the prevailing local dialect. Not easy for a relatively well educated person to penetrate the local burr! And as for the parish clerk his spelling may not have been equal to it! Now why didn't the person concerned object to the mis-spelling? Unfortunately It was almost certain that he /she had no literacy skills---and couldn't read or write; and few could write their own name. So any spelling changes stood, because they were undetected. We find it hard to envisage a society where very few were literate. I am talking about the lowest strata of society, and my Ag. Lab. forebears came from the bottom of the heap. You wonder at the lack of curiosity and inability to recognise the "pattern" of your own name, but when sheer survival is the most urgent thing on your mind, there is no room for mulling on such matters. A full belly, and a roof over your head is of more importance! Even after attendence at school was a requirement, for many rural families attendance was very patchy. As I see the very little ones in my family spontaneously recognising alphabet letters, or their own names, at a very early age, I marvel at the illiteracy of the poorer classes in earlier times. That is, until I remind myself that poor nutrition and constant deprivation would certainly dull their minds. The potential was there but the conditions were against any development. Our modern children have everything in their favour for absorbing information as they are well nourished -------surrounded by books, various media and have interesting environment/experiences. In the past children were often required to weed, pick up stones and perform other menial tasks in order to appease the farmer landlord. A tired child would have little energy left to show interest in learning and in books! It is a situation which I found hard to fully appreciate, but since I have thought more about it, so many reasons for the way things were have become apparent .I hope that I now view my family history with a little more sympathy and understanding. Certainly, I appreciate my good fortune in being a child of the 20th century, as I was born a "bookworm".and had the facilities to feed my addiction! Regards, Muriel. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The online Northamptonshire marriage strays index has just been updated. Now nearly 7,000 marriages are included. View them at http://www.northants1841.fsnet.co.uk/northants%20strays.htm ------------------------------- 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 ________________________________________________________________________ Get a FREE AOL Email account with unlimited storage. Plus, share and store photos and experience exclusively recorded live music Sessions from your favourite artists. Find out more at http://info.aol.co.uk/joinnow/?ncid=548.

I did wooodwork at school the girls did typing.! Typing was seen as sissy. Feminine vs Masculine Mantra . Although 'I' must say that I do see more feminine attributes in day to day progreesion , as the Decline of The Universal Masculine, takes hold. Although 'I' do prefer typing, as 'I' seem to be sitting on my chair more often. Their is always money to be made in peoples laziness. Forgive me for my laziness. brett [oz] ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2007 2:02 PM Subject: Re: [BAN] The whys and wherefores! > > Sadly, I feel we are gradually reverting to illiteracy! > > the number of e-mails and letters i get with no punctuation capitalisation > and ridled with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors?i wunder weather > it is me what is doing it wrongly and i am sure that many of you have > experienced a similar decline in standards to > I blame it, in part, on the use of text messaging, as well as falling > standards in schools. But, my question is: How do these people get job > interviews, when they are obviously not filling in the application forms > themselves, or writing their own CV's? Someone said to me the other day: > "Does it matter, as long as you can read it?" Yes, It bolody does!! I am > pretty good at decyphering e-mails, to make them read as they are meant, > but should I have to spend an extra 2 minutes, reading each and every one, > just to make sense of them, when a little forethought would eliminate > that? Thank goodness for the delete key! > OK. Soapbox put away now! > > > Ian > > > -----Original Message----- > From: pollyp <[email protected]> > To: ENG-BANBURY-AREA <[email protected]> > Sent: Sat, 29 Sep 2007 11.57am > Subject: [BAN] The whys and wherefores! > > > > > Dear Listers, > Have you ever returned to information that you are familiar with, to > have a > flash of > illumination and see it with new eyes? This happened to me this week, and > I feel > that I have gained some fresh insight into this area. > I had been looking into the earlier history of my PARRITT family and > to my > > bemusement had found the name spelt every which way; differing within > siblings > of the same family, or in various documents naming the same person. All > the > vowels > had a turn and the Rs and Ts could be single or double. Even my > grandfather was > PARROTT at his baptism, but had become PARRITT at his marriage! > That led me to wondering why this was so, and I concluded that the > vicar, > curate , > parish clerk or census enumerator had often to rely on what they heard, > spoken > in the prevailing local dialect. Not easy for a relatively well educated > person > to > penetrate the local burr! And as for the parish clerk his spelling may not > have > been > equal to it! > Now why didn't the person concerned object to the mis-spelling? > Unfortunately It > was almost certain that he /she had no literacy skills---and couldn't read > or > write; and > few could write their own name. So any spelling changes stood, because > they were > > undetected. > We find it hard to envisage a society where very few were literate. I > am > talking about > the lowest strata of society, and my Ag. Lab. forebears came from the > bottom of > the > heap. You wonder at the lack of curiosity and inability to recognise the > "pattern" of your > own name, but when sheer survival is the most urgent thing on your mind, > there > is no > room for mulling on such matters. A full belly, and a roof over your head > is of > more > importance! Even after attendence at school was a requirement, for many > rural > families > attendance was very patchy. > > As I see the very little ones in my family spontaneously recognising > alphabet > letters, or their own names, at a very early age, I marvel at the > illiteracy of > the poorer > classes in earlier times. That is, until I remind myself that poor > nutrition and > constant > deprivation would certainly dull their minds. The potential was there but > the > conditions > were against any development. > Our modern children have everything in their favour for absorbing > information as > they are well nourished -------surrounded by books, various media and have > interesting > environment/experiences. In the past children were often required to > weed, pick > up > stones and perform other menial tasks in order to appease the farmer > landlord. > A tired > child would have little energy left to show interest in learning and in > books! > It is a situation which I found hard to fully appreciate, but since I > have > thought more > about it, so many reasons for the way things were have become apparent > .I hope that I now view my family history with a little more sympathy > and > understanding. > Certainly, I appreciate my good fortune in being a child of the 20th > century, as > I was born > a "bookworm".and had the facilities to feed my addiction! > Regards, > Muriel. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > The online Northamptonshire marriage strays index has just been updated. > Now nearly 7,000 marriages are included. View them at > http://www.northants1841.fsnet.co.uk/northants%20strays.htm > ------------------------------- > 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 > > > ________________________________________________________________________ > Get a FREE AOL Email account with unlimited storage. Plus, share and > store photos and experience exclusively recorded live music Sessions from > your favourite artists. Find out more at > http://info.aol.co.uk/joinnow/?ncid=548. > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > The online Northamptonshire marriage strays index has just been updated. > Now nearly 7,000 marriages are included. View them at > http://www.northants1841.fsnet.co.uk/northants%20strays.htm > ------------------------------- > 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 >