At 21:22 23/07/2006, Eve McLaughlin wrote: >When you think of the consequences of the husband's coming home and >saying 'Lizzie, where's me dinner?' to a second wife named Maggie - >given a spirited Maggie, his dinner would end up over his head, not on >his plate. And in more intimate moments..........? Eve, that is a rather quaint notion, would such a spirited woman take kindly to having to adopt the name of a dead first wife to avoid the offence of accidental use of the first wife's name? The name pool in some small closed communities was so small that statistically a lot of second marriages would be to women with the same name as their predecessor. John

I still think that the name may shape the model. Knowing a friend whose present partner has the same name as his lamented dead wife makes me think that he was looking for a lady who had Ann type attributes rather than guarding against an accidental slip of the tongue. Also knowing what a lovely person the first Ann was, I do so hope the second Ann matches up. Audrey ----- Original Message ----- From: "John" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, July 23, 2006 10:04 PM Subject: Re: [OEL] Old and New style years > At 21:22 23/07/2006, Eve McLaughlin wrote: >>When you think of the consequences of the husband's coming home and >>saying 'Lizzie, where's me dinner?' to a second wife named Maggie - >>given a spirited Maggie, his dinner would end up over his head, not on >>his plate. And in more intimate moments..........? > > Eve, that is a rather quaint notion, would such a spirited woman take > kindly to having to adopt the name of a dead first wife to avoid the > offence of accidental use of the first wife's name? > The name pool in some small closed communities was so small that > statistically a lot of second marriages would be to women with the same > name as their predecessor. > > John > > ==== OLD-ENGLISH Mailing List ==== > To UNSUBSCRIBE from list mode -- > Send the one word UNSUBSCRIBE to > [email protected] > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.10.3/395 - Release Date: 21/07/2006 > >

In message <[email protected]>, John <[email protected]> writes >At 21:22 23/07/2006, Eve McLaughlin wrote: >>When you think of the consequences of the husband's coming home and >>saying 'Lizzie, where's me dinner?' to a second wife named Maggie - >>given a spirited Maggie, his dinner would end up over his head, not on >>his plate. And in more intimate moments..........? > >Eve, that is a rather quaint notion, would such a spirited woman take >kindly to having to adopt the name of a dead first wife to avoid the >offence of accidental use of the first wife's name? No one suggested that - the men seem to have selected women of the same forename to avoid it. It happens a great deal - and, as someone pointed out, John son of John and Elizabeth tends to marry an Elizabeth too - just to annoy. >The name pool in some small closed communities was so small that >statistically a lot of second marriages would be to women with the >same name as their predecessor. It was not that small in practice -- Eve McLaughlin Author of the McLaughlin Guides for family historians Secretary Bucks Genealogical Society

At 00:38 25/07/2006, Eve McLaughlin wrote: >No one suggested that - the men seem to have selected women of the same >forename to avoid it. It happens a great deal - and, as someone pointed >out, John son of John and Elizabeth tends to marry an Elizabeth too - >just to annoy. They had far better ways of annoying us than that. > >The name pool in some small closed communities was so small that > >statistically a lot of second marriages would be to women with the > >same name as their predecessor. >It was not that small in practice Certainly in the Lancashire hill communities that I've worked with in the 16th and 17th centuries the name pools didn't often run into double figures and when they did they tended to be spread over families that did not intermarry. I really can't see that a working man desperate for a woman to take care of his children would pass over suitable candidates just because they did not share the name of their first wives. John