One of my first cousins is writing a book about one of our
mutual great grandfathers. I am of the
opinion that our Great great grandfather would be a good place to start but it
is not my book. Our Great Great
Grandfather was a congregational minister who emigrated to Australia with his
whole congregation and set up a settlement about 50 miles from Adelaide, but my
cousin prefers the son and it is his book, after all.
I am a genealogist with an extensive Family Tree, am a member
of Ancestry.com and a regular visitor to Trove.gov.au, the National Archives
where old newspapers are being scanned and posted on line. Some (most) of the scanning is full of gaps,
weird words and strange typos and people are permitted to go into the site and
correct the entries which is fun to do and one gets one’s login name credited
with the corrections.
Anyway, our mutual grandfather has, as a middle name, the
maiden name of his paternal great grandmother.
Her family in England spelled the name with two ‘m’s but our
grandfather’s middle name is spelt with one ‘m’. England was a long way away at the turn of
the last century and there was no-one to ask how the name was spelled. My cousin was all for adding the extra ‘m’ to
our grandfather’s name despite the fact that his birth records, death
certificate of his wife and his own death certificate all show the single ‘m’
so it is legal and I think that I have persuaded him that he needs to stay
within the law.
Not so easy is the name of our mutual great great
grandfather. In England it is spelled
with an ‘e’ but here in Australia the ‘e’ is left out. I blame our great grandfather who misnamed
his son (our grandfather) and since he wrote his memoirs and spelled his
father’s name without the ‘e’ and
younger members of the family who also have that name have dropped the ‘e’ and
it has been set, literally in stone, on the wall at the entrance to the church
built in our great great grandfather’s memory.
I know that England was a long way away with no internet and
no Ancestry.com but I am beginning to suspect that my great grandfather
couldn’t spell to save himself and the only reason that the spelling in his
books was correct was that he had a good editor who wouldn’t have known how his
father’s name was spelt and therefore didn’t correct that particular error.
I have pretty well convinced my cousin that his name should
have the ‘e’ since Ancestry.com has a scanned copy of his father’s ( my 3 x
great grandfather’s) application for a marriage license and it is quite clear how
his name is spelled as it has his actual signature which quite clearly shows
the ‘e’.
Probably all or most variations of names were due to
spelling errors but I am a pedant and find it difficult to see it happening in
front of my eyes.
