Genealogy Chat

maybe if you take a Panadol and then let us know your first PROBLEM.............!! Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day, and getting going with the start of your family history CAN be the most difficult part (to get back to 1901 and the census records), yet you are forced to do this bit whilst you are suffering from a lack of experience........! Even if you have done the first part, if you think there is something that might be wrong or is bothering you....write about it on here and a load of old busybodies will soon give you their opinions!!! (Yes, me as well!!) Merry

English is a language like no other. It is based on dozens of different languages, some of which were never written down, such as Old English, and words taken into common usage from any stranger in the area. The only languages which have had consistent spelling over many centuries are Greek, Latin and Norman French. All other words which came into common usage from Norse, Celtic, Old English etc had no fixed spelling and the clerk just wrote them phonetically. Spelling was not an issue until the 1875 Education Act, when an attempt was made to standardise spellings. This did not of course include surnames! As people became more educated, they would decide on a standard spelling of the name and stick with it. One of my ancestors was a Parish Clerk for eight years and obviously could read and write - he spelled his name five different ways in that eight years. When I am searching, I think of the sound, not the spelling. And I also try to think of how the name might have been pronounced by someone with a speech impediment or a strong local accent - and how a stranger to the area might have heard that name and written it down. Your Maudesley name, I would imagine, has been written as Mawsley, Morsely, Mawdsley, Maudsley and so on. Add to that the possible further mistranscription of the name and it could be Hawsley! I would point out also, that even today, my own, four-letter surname, is spelled wrongly more times than it is right. Sorry if this fills you with gloom, but there are no absolutes in Family History Research! Olde Crone

There's no such thing as 'correct'. Who could ever say? How could anybody know? Maud(e)sley comes from a placename, but placenames used to be spelt inconsistently. Many of them weren't officially fixed until after the County Councils and District Councils were created in the 1880s. What may have happened in your family is that somebody came across an old record and decided the spelling he was using must be wrong and the old record was right. But if he'd found more old records, he'd have had a choice. This is partly how spellings like Greene and Smythe became popular -- people found the name spelt like that in ye olde Tudor times and decided to revert. Never rely on spelling to decide whether a record belongs to your tree or not.

Kathlyn What exactly are you trying to find out/do? nell

Tips please, Because of the various spellings of my name, 4 to date but all pronounced the same, I am having difficulties obtaining info that is my route to go down. Even since my fathers birth registration, an extra 'e' has been added to the spelling of my surname. I try all the spellings but am concerned that I am wasteing a lot of time and energy and still not sure which one is correct/ Asprin Annie