On the subject of who mis-spelled names in registers, I have WHYLEY ancestors from Gedling (with plenty of amusing alternate spellings), but what was interesting is that a branch of the family started spelling the name WHYLER for some reason, and that variant passed down, so that by the time of the census records in 1881 and onward, both variants occur, showing the family having split into two distinct names from the single origin. The same exact thing happened to ancestors from the Wigan area, where the names WILLOUGHBY and WILBY appear interchangeably. It does all seem to be related to the pronunciation of the name being transcribed differently as more and more people became literate in the 19th Century. John Peel

Loads more if you start looking for them; the concept of precise spelling only spread slowly to the provinces: One example being the Syson and Sisson variants living in the Erewash valley area; my mother's Wheatley/Whitley/Whately/Whitely tribe, the Stevenson/Steenson/Stenson alternatives. For a brief period in mid-Northumberland my own Gilfellon ancestors were being entered in the parish records as Goodfellow, before switching back 15 years later. Given the time, place and degree of literacy, I can see how easily it happened Bob Armstrong NZ ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Peel" <johnpeel@optonline.net> To: <nottsgen@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, September 06, 2013 7:18 AM Subject: [NTT] Mis-spelled Names > On the subject of who mis-spelled names in registers, I have WHYLEY > ancestors from Gedling (with plenty of amusing alternate spellings), but > what was interesting is that a branch of the family started spelling the > name WHYLER for some reason, and that variant passed down, so that by the > time of the census records in 1881 and onward, both variants occur, > showing > the family having split into two distinct names from the single origin. > The > same exact thing happened to ancestors from the Wigan area, where the > names > WILLOUGHBY and WILBY appear interchangeably. It does all seem to be > related > to the pronunciation of the name being transcribed differently as more and > more people became literate in the 19th Century. > > > > John Peel > > > > Notts Surname List > > http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~hughw/notts.html > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > NOTTSGEN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message