Dear Everyone: I've not posted to the list before, but I've been impressed by the help that is given here, so I hope that someone can give me some ideas. I have a will written in 1704. It is pretty straightforward, except for the deceased's wife's name. It appears to be, 'Denny,' and I'm pretty certain that it is some sort of 'pet name' or 'nickname.' Does anyone have any idea what the actual name would be for a person called, 'Denny?' If you'd like to see how it it is written, you can view this segment of the will here: http://www.home.earthlink.net/~daycogs/id12.html I would really appreciate any suggestions. I've yet to be able to find a marriage record for this couple and she seems to have disappeared after his death - I have no idea who she was! Best regards, Lee Cognetta

Lee: I think it would either be a common forename beginning with D - but I can't think of anything likely - or one containing the letters "den". Perhaps Prudence? Another possibility is that a will in 1704 referring to an adult woman might imply someone christened in the frenzy half a century earlier, so she could have an unusual (and embarrassing) Puritan name that she'd really want to shorten. Perhaps "Denial"? But that's a long shot. Best wishes Paul ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lee Bridge Cognetta" <daycogs@earthlink.net> To: "OEL" <OLD-ENGLISH@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 6:36 PM Subject: [OEL] Given name DENNY > Dear Everyone: > > I've not posted to the list before, but I've been impressed by the help > that is given here, so I hope that someone can give me some ideas. > > I have a will written in 1704. It is pretty straightforward, except for > the deceased's wife's name. It appears to be, 'Denny,' and I'm pretty > certain that it is some sort of 'pet name' or 'nickname.' Does anyone > have any idea what the actual name would be for a person called, 'Denny?' > > If you'd like to see how it it is written, you can view this segment of > the will here: http://www.home.earthlink.net/~daycogs/id12.html > > I would really appreciate any suggestions. I've yet to be able to find > a marriage record for this couple and she seems to have disappeared > after his death - I have no idea who she was! > > Best regards, > Lee Cognetta > > > > > > ==================================== > WEB PAGE: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~oel/ > ARCHIVES: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index?list=OLD-ENGLISH > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > OLD-ENGLISH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >