I agree with what Michael and Pam say. Perhaps I can add an illustration of what might happen. My mother's maiden name was Cornwell. The Histon registers and censuses record the family through the 19th century variously as Cornal, Cornall, Cornell, Cornhall, Cornhill and Cornhile. My great-great-grandparents apparently thought of themselves as Cornell - eight of their nine children were registered at birth as Cornell, and when they died, their deaths were registered as Cornell. The 9th child, my great-grandfather William, was accidentally registered in 1864 as CORNWELL, presumably a slip of the pen by the registrar. Being illiterate himself, he took along his 'bit o paper' when he married, and no doubt the Rector told him how to pronounce his surname properly! He lived and died as Cornwell, but his brothers and sisters were living and dying into the 20th century as Cornell. He moved his family away from Histon, and so my grandfather, born in 1903 into the first literate generation, knew no different than to call himself Cornwell. And so Cornwell my mother's side of the family remains today! Simon ronwake wrote: > I am researching the names EMBLETON and IMBLETON in the villages of Great Abington and Linton. I am confused about the interchange from EMBLETON to IMBLETON in the period 1618 to about 1716. > I have John Embleton; c. 09 Aug 1618 Great Abington, son of Richard Embleton and Jane Ward. > John Embleton; c. 24 Oct 1634 Great Abington, son of John and Elizabeth Embleton; > Laurence (Lawrence) Embleton; c. 01 Aug 1675 Great Abington, son of John and Alice Embleton.; Laurence married Thomasin Morley 05 Oct 1701 at Great Abington, his surname IM BLETON. (IGI Batch No.: M134011) > Their first two children both christened John EMBLETON, 14 Apr 1702 and 27 Aug 1703 at Great Abington, the first John was buried 16 Apr 1702. > The rest of his children were christened in Linton with the surname of Imbleton > Laurence was buried 16 Oct 1750 Linton Cambridgeshire. > His ninth child, Mary IMBLETON, c. 08 Jan1717 Linton; married Xenophon Hearn, 27 Jul 1742 at Ickleton, Cambridgeshire. > Confused > Ron Wakefield, S.E. Queensland > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ENG-CAMBRIDGESHIRE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 8.5.432 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/2634 - Release Date: 01/20/10 09:12:00 > >

Hi, Without wishing to labour a point, I'd like to add my tuppence (remember them? :o) ) worth... My great-great grandmother went by the splendidly descriptive surname of Manyweathers. Tracing this surname taught me a handy lesson in how to mis-spell a surname in research, with great effect. Mennyweather, Manywhether, Menewether, Moneworther - that one took some getting to grips with - Maineyweather, Meniwether, in fact, whichever way you could mangle the name usually came up with a hit. I'd got back to the mid 1700s by the time I found, what I'm assuming was the root of the surname, the good old simple Merryweather. It was even more confusing with another name in the family, and this was one that I had been warned about. My nan and I were very close. I'd shared my bedroom with her from the age of 6 until I was 14 and had badgered her over the years for all her memories of being raised part-time in Hilton. Her mother was a Starling by name, although they'd changed the name to Starnell at some point, before reverting back to Starling again. As children they'd formed the opinion that Starling just wasn't posh enough in the village and the name change had something to do with gaining a status of sorts. Sure enough, the early research showed that the name of Starnell appeared around the time of the 1881 census, with some going back to Starling by the 1891 census, while others clung to the change and died years later as Starnells, Going back further and I found a couple of entries in the Criminal Registers (including that of my great-great-great grandfather) for Starlings from Hilton that had been imprisoned for Larceny. Aha! This must be the reason for trying to shrug off a surname. It struck me as odd that it took 30 years before the mass alteration, and wasn't it a strange thing to change it to in the first place, and so I struggled on with my theories. The 'Betterment' theory was shot down quite quickly when the name of Starnell appeared in the early 1800s and again in the late 1700's. Eventually, after much googling, I looked in the OED, and therein lay the answer. A Starnel was simply a colloquial term for the bird, the Starling. Some of the parish clerks must have bee! n enthusiastic Ornithologists is all I can say... My Manyweathers came from Eltisley and Longstowe, by the way, and the Starlings look to have drifted from Huntingdon into Hilton, and I'd be very happy to hear from anyone with a connection. By the way, for those with a genealogical interest in Hilton, their website is outstanding (not least because I've made a contribution to it :o) ) with them having gathered a phenomenal amount of photographic information, some burial records, good maps and interesting documents - http://www.hilton-village.com/content/view/825/988/ Regards, Sally ---------------------------------------- > Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2010 07:36:22 +0000 > From: simon@simonknott.co.uk > To: eng-cambridgeshire@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [ENG-CAMS] Embleton to Imbleton, Great Abington and Linton > > I agree with what Michael and Pam say. Perhaps I can add an > illustration of what might happen. My mother's maiden name was Cornwell. > The Histon registers and censuses record the family through the 19th > century variously as Cornal, Cornall, Cornell, Cornhall, Cornhill and > Cornhile. My great-great-grandparents apparently thought of themselves > as Cornell - eight of their nine children were registered at birth as > Cornell, and when they died, their deaths were registered as Cornell. > The 9th child, my great-grandfather William, was accidentally registered > in 1864 as CORNWELL, presumably a slip of the pen by the registrar. > Being illiterate himself, he took along his 'bit o paper' when he > married, and no doubt the Rector told him how to pronounce his surname > properly! He lived and died as Cornwell, but his brothers and sisters > were living and dying into the 20th century as Cornell. He moved his > family away from Histon, and so my grandfather, born in 1903 into the > first literate generation, knew no different than to call himself > Cornwell. And so Cornwell my mother's side of the family remains today! > > Simon > > > > > ronwake wrote: >> I am researching the names EMBLETON and IMBLETON in the villages of Great Abington and Linton. I am confused about the interchange from EMBLETON to IMBLETON in the period 1618 to about 1716. >> I have John Embleton; c. 09 Aug 1618 Great Abington, son of Richard Embleton and Jane Ward. >> John Embleton; c. 24 Oct 1634 Great Abington, son of John and Elizabeth Embleton; >> Laurence (Lawrence) Embleton; c. 01 Aug 1675 Great Abington, son of John and Alice Embleton.; Laurence married Thomasin Morley 05 Oct 1701 at Great Abington, his surname IM BLETON. (IGI Batch No.: M134011) >> Their first two children both christened John EMBLETON, 14 Apr 1702 and 27 Aug 1703 at Great Abington, the first John was buried 16 Apr 1702. >> The rest of his children were christened in Linton with the surname of Imbleton >> Laurence was buried 16 Oct 1750 Linton Cambridgeshire. >> His ninth child, Mary IMBLETON, c. 08 Jan1717 Linton; married Xenophon Hearn, 27 Jul 1742 at Ickleton, Cambridgeshire. >> Confused >> Ron Wakefield, S.E. Queensland >> >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ENG-CAMBRIDGESHIRE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >> >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> >> >> No virus found in this incoming message. >> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com >> Version: 8.5.432 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/2634 - Release Date: 01/20/10 09:12:00 >> >> > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ENG-CAMBRIDGESHIRE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message