Gene, One thing we need to remember ... census takers did not know how to spell all of the names. Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like to be a census taker in the 1860's, going from home to home and trying to write down what each home owner was telling me. I am sure that I could not understand some of the people with their "different" language from different countries. And I doubt that some of the home owners could spell their names either. Now in the 1990's we are trying to read what the census taker has written ... the old hand writing, bad microfilm, etc. I have seen more changing of the letters than a prefix changing. It could be possible. It would be interesting to see how our ancestors really wrote their names back then! Sue ----- Original Message ----- From: Gene Andert <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2000 4:01 PM Subject: [INKOSCIU] Surname Prefixs - i.e."Van" & "Mc" > I have a question for all of you seasoned Kosciusko County genealogy > researchers. Have any of you run across instances where a particular > surname evolves over time from including a prefix to not including one, or > shifting from one prefix to another? > > Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about. My 3ggrandmother was > a "Vanferson/Vanpherson". Its spelled one of these two ways in various > records. Rachel Vanferson died at the young age of 27 in 1878 leaving > behind 4 young children. I find a family in the 1870 census, named > VANPHERSON, that I believe to be the parents and siblings of Rachel. And > the mother in this family is buried next to Rachel in the Union Cemetery in > Washington Twp. > > But before 1870 and after 1878, there is no trace of this family in the > Kosciusko County records. > > But in my exposure to many of the records of Kosciusko County, particularly > the marriage records, I will run across a McPHERSON. > > This is where my question comes from. Are any of you aware of a name > possibly evolving from VANPHERSON to McPHERSON? Am I grasping at straws > here, or is this a possibility? I've also seen occurrences of names like > LAUGHLIN and McLAUGHLIN. Was it possible that families would add or drop a > prefix Surname? > > I'd be curious if any of you had run across something similar to this in > our research. > > Gene Andert > Kosciusko County, IN USGenWeb Coordinator > http://user.ctlnet.com/gan155/kosco.htm > [email protected] Listowner > [email protected] > > > ==== INKOSCIU Mailing List ==== > Kosciusko Co, IN USGenWeb site http://user.ctlnet.com/gan155/kosco.htm > > > > > >