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"Along Those Lines ..."
by George G. Morgan
Click Here for George Morgan's Archive
| Working With Name Variants |
Genealogy is all about surnames. Surnames, dates, events and history are the things with which we are most concerned. Sometimes it seems impossible to locate the surnames of the people we're seeking. Either they weren't in the place where we thought they were or the names are different. This week, in "Along Those Lines ...", I want to talk about name variants. These are the differences in names in the records that can cause us to miss the people we're trying to locate. True Detective Stories Last weekend, as I was chatting with a friend online, she described to me her astonishing family history breakthrough. She had been searching for records of her Great-grandmother Hester LOWELL for years without success. She had been through numerous courthouses and through the census records. She had been looking for Thomas LOWELL, his wife Edna, and their three daughters, one of whom was named Hester. By chance, an older family member called her great-grandmother "Esther" -- not Hester. The lamp came on, and my friend began backtracking her research. She went back to the county in Indiana where the family had supposedly lived and began searching the 1880 census for anyone named Thomas, whose wife was named Edna, and who had three daughters at the time. The research paid off. Not only was the name Hester wrong, the surname was incorrect too! It wasn't LOWELL, it was HOWELL. After years of fruitless searching, my friend's great-grandmother was found and an erroneous surname was corrected. Now begins the work of corroborating the evidence and continuing the backward research. In my own experience, I sought information about my own great-grandmother whose name I had always heard was Carolina Alice WHITFIELD. According to the Morgan family bible, I knew she was born on 23 August 1852, and my understanding was that she was born in Caswell County, NC. I searched census records for that county without success. By chance, I was rummaging through family pictures one night and came across one of an old gentleman labeled "LeGrand Whitfield". I recalled that my aunt and grandmother had once told me this was a picture of Caroline's brother. I began thinking that the name, LeGrand, was an uncommon one and, tenacious genealogist that I am, I went back to the census records. Our library has census indexes for the census of 1880. I looked for LeGrand WHITFIELD without success. However, there was a LeGrand WHITEFIELD. What a difference that little 'e' made! Like my friend, I began working through the microfilm of the entire county and soon located LeGrand WHITEFIELD living two doors from William WHITEFIELD in 1880. Researching now for the right surname, I soon found William WHITEFIELD in the 1860 census with no wife but with four children living at home, the youngest of whom was named "Caroline A". Once I had the right name and the names of the other children born before 1850, I located William WHITEFIELD again in the 1850 census and found his wife, Sophia, living at the time. Later, I learned that the 'e' had been dropped by some members of the clan. Today, there are people in Caswell County, I'm told, who spell their name as WHITEFIELD but pronounce it as WHITFIELD. What a difference these name variants make! Places Where Name Variants Occur Certainly, names are changed when people marry. They can change when a child is adopted, and occasionally even when a boy was indentured as an apprentice. During the period of enslavement, African Americans were given the surname of their owners or adopted the surname themselves. People legally changed their names for any number of reasons, and others changed their names to avoid debts, prosecution for crimes, or persecution for religious reasons. But there are many places where you will find name variants. Vital Records Birth, marriage, and death records are subject to many types of errors. Death certificates are notorious for erroneous information, primarily because the informant (the person who provides the information) may not know the correct details. I have seen many death certificates with incorrect or missing parents' names, wrong birth and death dates, missing locations, misspelled names of the deceased and his or her spouse. I've even seen some with the wrong place of interment. Marriage licenses are usually correct, right? Think again! The clerk who issued my great-grandparents' license misspelled the groom's first name and the bride's surname. I have to wonder why my great-grandfather allowed this discrepancy to be entered. Or was he even present at all? Actually, this license was recorded in April 1868; the wedding took place in December 1866. Religious Institutions' Records Church, parish, and temple records are sometimes the only records you will find to use in determining birth, marriage, and death of a person. While there are good intentions of recording accurate information, there are many cases of names being spelled incorrectly. Census Records When working with census records, please recognize that they are not precise records. They were created by someone who traveled from home to home, farm to farm, and apartment to apartment. They obtained information from whoever was home at the time. Again, the informant may not have been the most knowledgeable member of the household. And if the landlady answered questions about a boarder, who is to say that she spelled the name correctly or that the answers she gave were correct? In other circumstances, a census taker (enumerator) may have decided it was too difficult to climb six flights of stairs to obtain information from the top floor apartments. Or, he may have been too tired to go down a branch road to a farm to conduct the census, and asked the neighbor at the crossroads instead. Another important thing to remember is that there were several copies of the census record made. The census taker collected the information. After the fact, copies were transcribed so that the Federal government would receive a copy and the state would receive a copy. In some cases, the county or township received a copy as well. Remember that transcription errors are common, and names and birth locations are prime candidates for mistakes. (One ancestor of mine, whose name was Hepsevah, was listed in three censuses respectively as Hepsebah, Hezzie, and Hebzeba. No census taker ever got it right, as far as I know.) Land Records Spelling errors are common in land and property records. In olden times, deeds were recorded by transcribing them from the original document into the deed book. Since they were handwritten, there was always the chance that illegible penmanship contributed to transcription errors. Spelling errors were often made on names, and other descriptive information was often transcribed incorrectly. Ships' Passenger Lists Many people's efforts at locating the ship on which their ancestors came to America are thwarted by bad information on passenger records. Names were misspelled by the recorder, names were spelled phonetically, and poor penmanship contributes to much confusion as well. In addition, some passengers may have decided to Americanize their names before they boarded the ship. In these cases, it may be impossible to ever trace one's ancestors on "the other side of the pond." Immigration and Naturalization Records Tales abound concerning people whose names completely changed on their arrival at Ellis Island. In truth, there were an abundance of translators employed there to help the immigrants with the paperwork. However, there certainly are situations where people's names were written phonetically. There were immigrants who decided to Americanize their surname on arrival. Military Records You would think that military records would be precisely maintained. That is not always so. Consider the surname SWORDS. Revolutionary War records and subsequent pension records for one of my ancestors, his widow and his survivors show several spellings. SWORDS, SWORD, SORD, SOARD, SWOPE and SARDS are all used. Newspaper Records Newspapers and other periodicals are the chronicle of a community. They are invaluable resources for further research. However, you must be careful with the information you find there. There are many, many errors in the spelling of names. The usual practice for posting birth, marriage, death and any other kind of notice is that the informant writes the information down. He or she may even provide the wrong spelling of a name. It is then edited by the newspaper, typed, typeset and then printed. Anywhere along the way, there are likely to be errors made. (My mother's death notice included misspellings of one of her sister's names, and the place of residence for another family member was listed as the nonexistent Fargo, Ill, instead of Chicago, Ill. The newspaper made the mistakes.) Legal and Not So Legal Name Changes There are people who changed their names legally. If you suspect a legal name change, check for the existence of court records to confirm it. There were others, however, who decided to change their names without benefit of legal advice or court action. In post-Civil War times, there are many instances of former slaves who changed their names -- first, middle and last -- in order to distance themselves from their former owners. Other people, perhaps trying to escape the law or debtor's prison, changed their names and relocated to avoid prosecution. Most common in this country, however, are instances where surnames were changed arbitrarily in order to make them sound more American. Helping to Get Around The Problem There are many approaches you might take to determine correct names. Here are a few good ones that work for me: The use of the Soundex microfilm records may be beneficial if you are looking for similar sounding names (Smith, Smythe, Smithe, etc. or Holder, Holden, etc.). Soundex can help with many of the spelling variants. Vital records and religious documents may often be corroborated with one another or other sources. Check birth records with Bible, vital records offices and religious institutions. Check death records with obituaries in newspapers. Check marriage licenses with the issuer, with newspaper announcements, the religious institution where the ceremony was held, and with others who might have witnessed the event. If you suspect name errors or misspellings, sit down and create a list of possible alternative spellings. Then, when you are conducting research, pull out your list and check each variation. Whenever you see another one that might be another variant, add it to your list. If you suspect a name change, check to see if a courthouse record exists. If you think a name was otherwise changed, check census records before and after one where you may have located a person. You will need to make sure you identify the same place of residence on both censuses. That's another reason why you may have heard people advise recording at least six neighbors on either side of your ancestor in each census. That way, if you can't locate your ancestor again, locate his/her neighbors and then look for your ancestor. It's a way of narrowing down the search. In years past, some towns had multiple newspapers. It was not unusual for a birth, marriage or death notice to be posted in all the papers. Good genealogical research means looking for collaborating evidence. In this case, look for multiple papers in the same town. You might also check neighboring towns' papers too. Conclusion Name variants, whether intentional or errors, can be terrible research obstacles. You can't always overcome them, but sometimes you can think and reason your way around them. Using logic and being creative with name spellings can help you become a better researcher. Once you open your mind to the fact that there may be more than one spelling, your horizons are opened. If you've come to an impasse on an individual or a whole surname line, try this approach. You may just open a new door. Happy hunting George
IT'S HERE AT LAST! "The Genealogy Forum on America Online: The Official User's Guide" I'm pleased to announce that my book, The Genealogy Forum on America Online: The Official User's Guide, is now available. I spent many months working on the book and collaborated closely with my colleagues in the Genealogy Forum to make sure the screens and the content at the time of publication are as correct as possible. The result is an almost 300-page book with almost 100 screens or graphic images. The graphics illustrate how to accomplish every task imaginable to make you a "power user" of the Genealogy Forum. The Genealogy Forum on America Online will introduce you to America Online and to each of the types of resources found within the forum. From "how-to" guides for beginners to reference articles for experienced users, from message boards to file libraries, from vast surname resources to informative chats and lectures, from international research guides to extensive ethnic resources, and from sophisticated forum search facilities to the very best resources on the Internet -- The Genealogy Forum on America Online: The Official User's Guide will teach you how to make the most effective use of this online treasure trove. The Genealogy Forum on America Online: The Official User's Guide is published by Ancestry, Inc., the leader in definitive genealogical publishing. The book is available at Ancestry, Inc. and through the Genealogy Forum Store on America Online. Click Here for George Morgan's Archive
Copyright 1998 George G. Morgan All Rights reserved "Along Those Lines ..." is a weekly feature of the Genealogy Forum on America Online (Keyword: ROOTS). This column originally appeared in the Genealogy Forum on America Online. You may send E-mail alonglines@aol.com. George Morgan would like
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