Genealogy Chat

81 pages of Christmas!

I've just put Easter into first box on Ancestry civil reg, there are 40 PAGES of them, mainly girls, but some chaps too! And guess what --- aaahhhh! Angel, Robert Christmas 1870 March Births Yarmouth Norfolk View Record Angel, William Christmas 1890 March Births Flegg Norfolk Normal for Norfolk, I guess. nell

Lea Way back in some Norfolk registers I found a few Easters. I had thought it was a way of celebrating when they were born, but my mum thought it was probably a variant spelling of Esther. Going on from which, she was very surprised when I found her Aunt Het was really Esther and not Harriet! nell

I am helping transcribe the Canadian 1911 census and just came across a lady called 'Earriot' presume it was Harriet with an accent! Barbara

I once found a woman with the christian name Easter in a parish register. When I found her on the census she appeared as Esther, suppose it was an easy mistake to make. She had only just moved into the village when I first found mention of her, and no doubt spoke differently to the locals Dee xx

Are there different pronunciations for Hudson and Hoodson?

Love it Nell! Sounds like something Alice would say on the 'Vicar of Dibley'!! Actually just looking at Heather's post again when she mentioned the name Sture has made me think about my Sturt family- they were all cockneys so wouldn't necessarily have pronounced the last T...now there's a reason why I can't find some of 'em! Aileenx

Aileen That's made my day! One of my friends once worked as a registrar. A traveller woman came in to register the birth of her umpteenth child, a girl, Elizabeth. My friend asked 'Is that Elizabeth with a z or Elisabeth with an s?' and the mum replied, somewhat puzzled, 'It's Elizabeth with an E!' nell

I often try to pronounce a name using an accent I think would have been my ancestors and it does help with possible misspellings. On my nan's marriage certificate it actually states 'Lizziebirf' as one of her names- she was a right Cockney gal so even the vicar wrote it as he heard it! Aileen

Nell, I wonder what spelling skills were needed in 1851 to become an enumerator, and how did you get the job? Presumably you had to be 'one up' on the families you visited who, in many cases had no opportunity to learn to read or write and would therefore be somewhat in awe of someone so learned!! Sue

Things may be misrecorded because the enumerator misheard, or the record was misread when put on the census sheet, or because the writer couldn't spell. 1851 Whichford, Warwickshire enumerator recorded my great-great grandfather Emmets Matthews as Emits Mathews, living in a 'cotage' and all the females in the village called Emma had their names recorded as Emmah. nell

Thats quite right. We had a long and amusing thread about this some time back. Goes for the place of birth too and why you often get a big city as pob when an ancestor has come from a small country village In fact I came across a Sture yesterday which was a Devon yokel giving his name as Steer.

I have just found my Hudson family in Yorkshire in 1871 down as Hoodson. Obviously the enumerator wrote what he heard! Might be worth bearing accents in mind while searching. Sue