Good morning list I am trying to get it right. When transcribing parish registers for 1500/1600s I have come across the word "daughter" looking like the word "dafter". Was the letter "f" a shortened version of "ugh". In ignorance...............Mary from Ottawa, Cnada

>I am trying to get it right. When transcribing parish registers for 1500/1600s I >have come across the word "daughter" looking like the word "dafter". That is so - quite common. You might think that some people were being a mite too clever, assuming a pronunciation from reading, because other aught words were pronounced f. (draught for one and Woughton in Bucks is pronounced Wuffton (though nearby Loughton is pronounced Low (like cow) ton) But this does seem a little far fetched. The name must simply have been pronounced 'aft' at one time, since the surname Dafter occurs. Strange, isn't it? The sort of similar sound 'dahter or darter' is also found in speech. -- Eve McLaughlin Author of the McLaughlin Guides for family historians Secretary Bucks Genealogical Society