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Archiver > ABERDEEN > 2008-03 > 1205685624


From: "Tony Wren \(genealogy\)" <>
Subject: [ABERDEEN] Spelllings
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2008 16:42:15 -0000
References: <003601c88563$e88efa80$6f01a8c0@pentium4><F2D87376D149474C9612F5E45DDEF838@pcPC><c31aa9c00803151326y3055a35ey1fd2235e3436dfe6@mail.gmail.com>


re Eva Mitchell's question:

Names vary not only in transcriptions, but also in writings of the same
family. My 4*gt-grandfather spelled his name Alexander ABERDEIN in a letter
written in 1804. I have a book inscribed to his eldest son as William
ABERDEEN in 1776, but to his daughter Fanny ABERDEIN (my 3*gt-grandmother)
in 1799. Alexander's gravestone in Braemar gives the surname as ABERDEIN
(according to the MI).

More recently, my grandmother, born 1873, the illegitimate daughter of Mary
COLLIE and James CORBET, was registered as COLLIE, but later adopted the
surname CORBETT (sic), despite all known references to her father's family,
including gravestones whish I have seen in New Deer, being CORBET.

Tony

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ray Hennessy" <>
To: <>
Sent: Saturday, March 15, 2008 8:26 PM
Subject: Re: [ABERDEEN] William Mitchell, Aboyne - Mary Birss


> On 15/03/2008, Eva Mitchell asked:
>
>> ...were the names BIRSE and BIRSS used in much the
>> same way as MITCHEL and MITCHELL, dependant on who was
>> recording the facts, the time-frame, and where they lived?
> ____________________________________________________
>
> Hi Eva
>
> Don't get hung up on precise spelling. If you look through the
> OPR films you will find each scribe had an idiosyncratic way
> of spelling names, and indeed many other words. It would
> depend on the education they had, the local accents, their
> original tutor, how good their hearing was, whether they
> could be bothered to do it the same each time, where the
> name was in its evolution to today's form, and so on.
>
> Before the 19th century, spelling was not thought to be a
> discipline - nothing like today's devotion to "right spelling".
> Once you get back to OPRs every spelling is possible.
> You have to be flexible when searching. In all honesty,
> can you think of any reason *in those days* to differntiate
> between BIRSE and BIRSS? I'd guess the first one was
> a result of a "posh" accent and the second a more rural
> Scottish burr. But maybe Gavin will have a thought on that!!
>
> --
> Best wishes
>
> Ray
>
> ***********************************************************
>>From Ray Hennessy
> Forenames website: www.whatsinaname.net
> Preferred Email address:
> ***********************************************************
>
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