Margaret, In the old days they quite often interchanged the c and t, for instance in "Pauntz" and "Pauncz". A lot of the common people could not read or write, so the educated person (priest etc.) spelled the names the way they thought it should be spelled. JMN -----Original Message----- From: marlo [mailto:marlo50@nwonline.net] Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2006 9:07 AM To: HUNGARY-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [HUNGARY-L] writing We found an entry in a Greek Catholic church where it looks like the c is a t in the middle of the name. Is it possible that a priest who made the entries wrote so that we read it as a t instead of a c? This was in the early 1800 and went on for a few years. Margaret

This was not just a matter of literacy. The exact spelling of a surname was not standardized, as long as it approximated the pronunciation. An individual, even an educated one, might spell his name more than one way. I have several examples of this as late as the mid-19th century. That is why it is futile for people to search for the "correct" spelling of their surname. Janet -----Original Message----- From: Joseph M. Nemeth [mailto:nimpex@earthlink.net] Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2006 8:18 PM To: HUNGARY-L@rootsweb.com Subject: RE: [HUNGARY-L] writing Margaret, In the old days they quite often interchanged the c and t, for instance in "Pauntz" and "Pauncz". A lot of the common people could not read or write, so the educated person (priest etc.) spelled the names the way they thought it should be spelled. JMN -----Original Message----- From: marlo [mailto:marlo50@nwonline.net] Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2006 9:07 AM To: HUNGARY-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [HUNGARY-L] writing We found an entry in a Greek Catholic church where it looks like the c is a t in the middle of the name. Is it possible that a priest who made the entries wrote so that we read it as a t instead of a c? This was in the early 1800 and went on for a few years. Margaret