I suppose that now is a good a time to discuss the spelling of the names of our ancestors. As pointed out by Mary Lou; determining the "right" spelling of an individual's name from records and documents we manage to find can be interesting, to say the least. One of the things we often forget is that many of our ancestors were not able to read or write. As shown by the documents they signed with a "his/her mark". This resulted in the name being spelled the way the one writing the document heard the name pronounced. Therefore we have the surname SACKETT spelled as SACKT, SACKIT, SACKITT, SACKUT, SUCKUTT, SUCKIT, SUCKITT, SACHET, SACHETT, SACKET, SACKETT; just to list a few of the ways it was heard pronounced. An example which relates to the family of Milford Sackett can be found in the name of his father. Charles Weygant has his name as 4257-Orneal Sackett. The 1850 census has his name spelled as Oramer Sackett: Year: 1850; State: MI; County: Lenawee; Township: Blissfield Roll: M432_355 Page: 358 1435/1435 Sacket, Oramer A. 40 m carpenter NY Sacket, Susan 38 f NY Sacket, Eliza 10 f MI And other records have it spelled Oramel. So, how does one determine which is the "right" spelling? We've had similar situations with the names Orlen/Orlin/Orland Sackett Rolin/Rollin/Rowland/Roland Sackett I recently had contact with a descendant of Weygant's 600-Justice Sackett who has a family Bible which has his name spelled Justus Sackett and asked that I correct the spelling of the name, on the website, from Justice to Justus. Now, I could change the spelling in my database. But when it comes to Weygant's book, the best I could do is to put a note that the name was probably spelled as "Justus". And if I change the spelling in my database, then those looking for him based on Weygant's spelling as "Justice" would not find him. Briefly, concerning death dates. As Mary Lou pointed out; entering that one died AFTER a date does not necessarily mean that the individual has died. It just means that this was the last known date that the person was alive. The same would apply to a death date given as BEFORE as given date. Such as a will which mentions the heirs of a son or daughter who is deceased. We don't know when the son or daughter died but we know the date of the will which says they had died before that date. I hope this helps some in understanding some of the little problems we face in updating the information found in Weygant's book. Thurmon Acting TSFA Historian [Wow !! a title already] On Sun, 6 Jul 2003 09:49:47 -0400 "Mary Lou Sackett" <mlsackett@team-national.com> writes: > As most of the list knows, I have been trying to research all of the > Michigan Sackett's for a long time. When looking through Lenawee > Co., MI info at the Museum in Adrian, I found pages from the family > Bible of Oramel Sackett and his first wife Cornelia Willey. I have > this information posted at the Lenawee Co. website: > http://dianesgenealogy.com/lenaweemi/biblesackett.html > > Between census records, death records, etc., I have found 3 > different name combinations for Milford F. Sackett, son of Oramel > and his second wife, Susan Betts. Fortunately we found Sue and her > husband to set us straight on his name. In my earlier post on this > site, I had Suzanne Sackett as "d. after 1984" because I knew she > was alive that year. Was happy to find out she is alive and well > now! Hadn't meant to imply that she wasn't! Milford had a son > named Milton. I think that is why I must have made that earlier > mistake. Anyway, I think this line is getting straightened out. > > The link to a picture of Oramel A. Sackett (Milford's father) is at > http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~sackettheadstones/index_a-z/sack ett_n-r.htm#O > > Hope this helps. Mary Lou > > > ==== SACKETT Mailing List ==== > RootsWeb blocks HTML formatting in email messages. Be sure to set > your > email software to text only before posting a message to the list. > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy > records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 > >