Surname Spelling Variation

[DavidWW]

This might seem trivial, but when I saw it, it occurred to me that it's a near perfect example of how spelling variations can potentially cause problems.

My mother-in-law's married surname is LINDSAY, - and it's been spelt that way as far back as I've traced the tree with only the very occasional omission of the "D", i.e. LINSAY.

While waiting for my m-i-l in her sheltered housing complex's common room t'other day I was looking at some photies on the wall from a recent event involving the residents, and was taken aback to see her recorded as "Jean LYNSEY".

OK, putting my professional hat on, I trust that I've have done the necessary background research to establish possible spelling variations if I was tasked with searching a LINDSAY line tomorrow, but it still made me think

David

[wini]

David,
I got caught with one which is very simple I just didn't think of trying. Usually it is Gun/Gunn but I have now found Gunne in one record.

wini

[DavidWW]

David,
I got caught with one which is very simple I just didn't think of trying. Usually it is Gun/Gunn but I have now found Gunne in one record.

wini

Hi wini

That's called the trailing wildcard !

In other words, sometimes to begin with, but at least when all else fails, stick a "*" on the end . . e.g. here, not only would GUN* pick up GUNN but also GUNNE and any other lurking variants. The problem can be that it will also pick up anything else starting with GUN, - can't think of too many in this instance, but, if there were, I'd go the alternate route of GUN? and GUNN? .

David

[StewL]

Over the few years I have been in this game I must have been fairly fortunate to find very few spelling variations in my lot, up until very recently the Mathieson, Matheson, Mathison, Mathewson names had the most variations spread over a period of time and generations.

Just very recently I was given some leads by my distant cousin, and just in one family (OPR's) the names goes from Baaks, Bakes, Balks and another related family goes from Flucker, Fluker, Flooker in a very short period not as many variations as some people have, but just in one short period/family I now have a few spelling variations
Obviously being OPR's literacy may have been an issue, but at least this lot registered the wains, not like the majority of my lang deid yins in this period.

So something I will now have to keep an eye out for more than I used to have to, spelling variations

[Ina]

I've had several different spellings for my Morans.................. Moran/Mourne/Morn/Morne/Moren. I think with the Irish accents the registrar wrote it the way it sounded to him/her.

Ina

[Bertha]

I've come across several name variations.
My Nivens enumerated as Nevin.
Neilson - Nelson (as we spell it now)
My McDonalds were found my a kind member of TS enumerated as McDowall
My husbands surname of Henretty started of as Hanratty in Ireland, there I could see where the accent might have been misheard. This name has also several other variations and was used in the Tom Hanks/Leonardo de Caprio movie "Catch Me If You Can" where I think Tom's character was a Henratty or something similar.
As for Farquhar well have seen many variations and I'm sure those I can't find are hiding under one of them!
Good luck to everyone with similar probs.
Bertha

[karenmcc]

I get it all the time with my surname. The most recent one was only last week when booking a birthday party for my son. The guy had written it down as MCCABEN and this was even after I had spelt it for him. I also get McGubbin and McGovern a lot. I answer to most of them, but the most annoying one is when it is spelt correctly and then pronounced Mc "CUBE" in. I usually correct people then.

I also use to put a gap between the two C's. This could sometimes cause confusion on official documents, so have stopped doing it on anything important. I do still have a nice big gap in my signature however.

Karen McCubbin