Lovell Lee wrote: >But, why did the census takers change the spelling in several states and/or >places and not in others? Several branches of WHITTINGTONs originate in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, alongside the Welsh border. While looking there for my great-grandmother's family I found that in 1881 they were enumerated as WHITTENTON. All their personal documents have them as WHITTINGTON. However ... ... the Gloucestershire accent would pronounce the word as WHITTENTON. If you find it spelled thus in the US, especially in mining areas, it could be worth looking for the ancestors in the Forest. This ancient woodland sits over enormous coal reserves and I know that many WHITTINGTONs born in the Forest are given as dying in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania and such-like places. There was much emigration, an when people gave their name, they did not necessarily know how it was spelt. Don't know how they pronounce it in Sussex ... maybe likewise. Lizzie LOVE

Hello Lizzie and Love, It sounds that you two have really gotten into the spelling and the prounciation on our Whittington relatives. Right...many of the people who were taking the census were writing these names as they were spoken. Depending where the people lived, their spoken words were governed by the dialect of the area. In a large area you could hear many different prounciations of the same" single word." Remember there very few people who not only couldn't spell but couldn't write either. In my research...I have found anything from Whiteington ..Whitington Whittington Whittenton to Whiting. If you have never seen the word name before you have to depend on how well you knew which letters or letter combinations produced which phonetic sounds./. Education of the people in those early days was not a priority. And then again...some people changed them for a special reason. Good luck with the research. Keith Whittington ----- Original Message ----- From: Lizzie Love <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, April 13, 2001 2:28 PM Subject: Re: SPELLING > Lovell Lee wrote: > > >But, why did the census takers change the spelling in several states and/or > >places and not in others? > > Several branches of WHITTINGTONs originate in the Forest of Dean, > Gloucestershire, alongside the Welsh border. While looking there for my > great-grandmother's family I found that in 1881 they were enumerated as > WHITTENTON. All their personal documents have them as WHITTINGTON. However > ... > > ... the Gloucestershire accent would pronounce the word as WHITTENTON. If > you find it spelled thus in the US, especially in mining areas, it could be > worth looking for the ancestors in the Forest. This ancient woodland sits > over enormous coal reserves and I know that many WHITTINGTONs born in the > Forest are given as dying in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania and such-like > places. There was much emigration, an when people gave their name, they did > not necessarily know how it was spelt. > > Don't know how they pronounce it in Sussex ... maybe likewise. > > > > Lizzie LOVE > > > ==== WHITTINGTON Mailing List ==== > > > > ============================== > Shop Ancestry - Everything you need to Discover, Preserve & Celebrate > your heritage! > http://shop.myfamily.com/ancestrycatalog > >