I'm wondering what is the best way to deal with variations on names. I have a surname which in the past was spelled every which way. I appreciate that this often happened when people were illiterate and therefore couldn't check the spelling registrars, clerks or enumerators had used.
For consistency, I've used the current spelling, but I wondered if I should mention the variety of spellings that had been used in the past and, if so, what would be the best way to do this?
Thank you,
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AdrianBruce
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This is one of those 'How long is a piece of string?' questions...
If the variation is minor, I leave the person's name as the 'standard' form and record the variation on the note for the event in question (e.g. 'The Baptism in the Parish Register uses the form...'). Basically I don't consider it genealogically significant that the parish clerk was inconsistent. But it is useful to record the differences as a prompt.
However, some names definitely change their spelling - there is no other term for it. Such a name in my tree is 'Heler' (as per the Cheese Manufacturers of that name). It starts out in the 1700s as variants of 'Healow' - one spelling is 'Healer', which I suspect gives us a clue on the average pronunciation. Then by the time of the censuses, it seems to have settled on 'Heler'. So for the people from the 1700s, I use 'Healow' with notes on each event where the source document is different. For those in the late 1800s, their name is 'Heler'. And somewhere in the middle I'm sure there is someone with a primary name of 'Healow' and an alternative name of 'Heler'.
There are other cases where I record the variation as an alternative name. For instance, in Nantwich, 'Billington' is often rendered as 'Billinge'. That is a non-obvious difference so everyone with both forms gets recorded as a primary name of 'Billington' and an alternative name of 'Billinge'. I suspect that we're seeing a more important variation here than 'Healow/Healer' as it's consistently just that single variation. However, I suspect that it's an effect of pronunciation vs. the 'correct' form as far as the usual parish clerk knew it.
If the variation is minor, I leave the person's name as the 'standard' form and record the variation on the note for the event in question (e.g. 'The Baptism in the Parish Register uses the form...'). Basically I don't consider it genealogically significant that the parish clerk was inconsistent. But it is useful to record the differences as a prompt.
However, some names definitely change their spelling - there is no other term for it. Such a name in my tree is 'Heler' (as per the Cheese Manufacturers of that name). It starts out in the 1700s as variants of 'Healow' - one spelling is 'Healer', which I suspect gives us a clue on the average pronunciation. Then by the time of the censuses, it seems to have settled on 'Heler'. So for the people from the 1700s, I use 'Healow' with notes on each event where the source document is different. For those in the late 1800s, their name is 'Heler'. And somewhere in the middle I'm sure there is someone with a primary name of 'Healow' and an alternative name of 'Heler'.
There are other cases where I record the variation as an alternative name. For instance, in Nantwich, 'Billington' is often rendered as 'Billinge'. That is a non-obvious difference so everyone with both forms gets recorded as a primary name of 'Billington' and an alternative name of 'Billinge'. I suspect that we're seeing a more important variation here than 'Healow/Healer' as it's consistently just that single variation. However, I suspect that it's an effect of pronunciation vs. the 'correct' form as far as the usual parish clerk knew it.
Adrian
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tatewise
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The article in how_to:handle_people_with_multiple_names|: How to Handle People With Multiple Names may give you some ideas.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry