Genealogy Chat

Been looking everywhere for a Sybil Virgo's death. Couldn't find it so, in desperation, I tried all the Virgo deaths in the timeframe I thought it had to be, and to my surprise, there it was, spelled 'Sibbel'!!! Now you know why free bmd has been so busy; and I can go and get the dinner - my husband will be delighted. So the tip is, if you can't find something, try spelling it phonetically.

Good tip. I found my great-grandfather Jeuel on the electoral roll recently. His name is very unusual - the only Jeuel Jabez Gray on ancestry civil reg. So I was surprised to find him on the roll as Jule! (oh, Sandy!) My gt gt grandfather Emmets Matthews is variously recorded on the census as Emits, Emetts and Emmels (obviously enumerator forgot to cross his ts there!) nell

Maria Trussler marries John Horne. Four months later she registers her son's birth - as Maria Horn nee Trusler. It's easy enough to find on Freebmd, but in the indexes there are Hornblower, Hornby, Horncastle etc between the two spellings, so you often have to look on two pages. Soundex, Namex etc often help, but my Poling/Poulden/Pulling ancestors are usually treated as three separate names.

And the further back you go, the worse it gets! When the ancestors themselves had no idea how to spell their own names it ws largely phonetic, with some interesting spellings! Bev x

Bev is correct, it gets worse the further back you go, often the cleric couldn't spell either! also local dialect had a lot to do with it.