Greetings Thanks Roy for the correct pronunciation, I have a cordwainer in my family, my ggg grandfather George MIDGLEY,. I knew what he did but pronounced the word as it is written. Howard Newcastle Aust Roy wrote Could I suggest that newcomers to family history really ought to know, or find out, what a cordwainer was, since it is a term you will come across very frequently and just about everybody will have one in their ancestry? Pronounced "cordner", a cordwainer was a worker or trader in leather goods. The name derives from Cordova (Cordoba), the Spanish town famous for its fine leather. Generally speaking, in everyday terms a cordwainer was a shoemaker, bootmaker or cobbler. You will run across the term umpteen times in parish registers, etc.

>From Howard Benson, > Thanks Roy for the correct pronunciation, I have a cordwainer in my > family, my ggg grandfather George MIDGLEY,. I knew what he did but > pronounced the word as it is written. > > Howard > Newcastle Aust> To be honest, Howard, so did I until I looked up the word in what I regard as the bible of genealogy - "The Dictionary of Genealogy: A guide to British ancestry research" by Terrick V H Fitzhugh. He says that it is pronounced "cordner". Being one of those words that are now virtually obsolete, I suppose you would have had to be around in the 19th century to hear someone say it. I suppose it's a bit like the name Mainwaring (as in Capt Mainwaring in Dad's Army), pronounced Mannering. Or Featherstonehaugh, pronounced Fanshaw. -- Roy Stockdill Editor, Journal of One-Name Studies Guild of One-Name Studies website: www.one-name.org Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE