Hi Elizabeth, I agree totally with you and really we think of spelling very differently than they did in the 19th century, particularly ordinary working people in those days. Adding an e at the end, changing an a for an oi wasn't even on the radar for them. Also we are looking at things like censuses for example, each separated by ten years, as a continuity. They would never have viewed it like that. How would you remember which way you spelled your name ten years ago or 20 etc., on a census and why would it matter? When filling out your marriage register how would you know what your dad or mom put on a census form? There is my 5 cents worth! Jenny ________________________________ > From: elp@northwestel.net > To: jipl19@live.ca; nottsgen@rootsweb.com > Subject: MARRAT/MARRIOT > Date: Thu, 5 Sep 2013 07:13:01 -0700 > > Hello Jenny > I don’t know whether I would say someone way back then spelled his/her > name incorrectly as so often names were spelled as they were heard by > whomever was transcribing. A local accent could also contribute to how > a name was ‘heard’. Your MARRAT probably was taught to spell his name > from someone who heard it as MARRAT. > Also the transcriber could just spell a name the way he or she wanted > to and if the person in question was illiterate no one would be aware > (or care!) > > I have BUNTINGs who also appeared as BUNTONs within the same family > group and my line ended up being BUNTON whereas a cousin’s line was > BUNTING – and within the same parish register both spellings were used > for the same family. > I also have a line of LANEs who (in the same handwriting for baptisms > of various children of the same parents) were LAIN, LAYING, LAYNE. > > Just my two cents’ worth – not that we have pennies any more! > > Best regards > Elizabeth Pugh > Whitehorse > Yukon > where it’s still almost summer and at my end of town we haven’t had a > frost yet .

On 9/6/2013 2:58 PM, Jenny Levine wrote: > Hi Elizabeth, > > I agree totally with you and really we think of spelling very differently than they did in the 19th century, particularly ordinary working people in those days. Adding an e at the end, changing an a for an oi wasn't even on the radar for them. Also we are looking at things like censuses for example, each separated by ten years, as a continuity. They would never have viewed it like that. How would you remember which way you spelled your name ten years ago or 20 etc., on a census and why would it matter? When filling out your marriage register how would you know what your dad or mom put on a census form? > > There is my 5 cents worth! > Jenny > ________________________________ > Dear Jenny, Thank you so much for bringing up this overview of what it was like from their viewpoint. I think too that since about 1900, we have gradually gone from an Aural, listening Society, to a very Visual Society! In one of my 3rd great grandfather's Will about 1829 in Pennsylvania, the lawyer or registrar who wrote it for him, spelled the Bleakney name at least four different ways. It was only 1 1/3 pages in length. I have been enjoying this thread on the Marriot family as my husband's paternal grandmother was a Marriot and she was born in England. And we have found various spellings of the name, even in small areas. And to add to the mix, one of the husband's took his wife's maiden name when they married. It would never have occurred to him what a mess that would create 200+ years later for any descendants, trying to figure out what was going on. Also, even though grandma Elsie came with her family to the USA as a child before the turn of the century, her father never became literate. Her mother was, as were all the children, and she took care of any legal records, paid bills, shared the newspaper and books with him. He may have had a learning problem such as dyslexia, but he was a successful, hard-working farmer, and supported his family. Beginning 12 years ago while in my 60s, it was a great struggle for me to begin to grasp what the internet would bring about, and I have never caught up. What it must have been for those who lived in the mid and late 1800s into the 1900s, with things changing, developing, coming about so quickly within their lifetime! Thanks for extending my horizons! Susan E, northern Indiana, 100 east of Chicago, Illinois, USA