Published at 11:10, Thursday, 29 September 2011

WHAT’S in a name? Names are the threads that follow through our family histories. Many people looking at their family history start with the male surname and follow that back.

Whatever the route, family history research always involves piecing together evidence that we think joins people of the same surname together, or proves that an individual referred to in one records is the same as found in another.

Although this may sound simple, those of you embarked on genealogical research will know it’s not. Despite hours of searching you simply can’t find the name you are seeking. Here we’ll tell you our top tips to help you widen your search and increase your chances of success.

Don’t assume your surname has always been spelt a certain way. I might claim my surname has never had an ‘E’ on the end, but many of my forebears would not have been able to read or write so how would they have been able to direct or correct the vicar or census enumerator? Surnames have evolved over time, and the further you go back with your research the further away from fixed spellings, of all sorts, you get. Try and imagine all the different ways a name could have been spelt particularly if written down as spoken. Don’t be deterred by a rogue letter; a McGowan could easily have been related to a McGowen.

Similarly, think laterally about first names. Just as in modern times, families have always used pet names and, in fact, this was particularly common in previous centuries. Got a Polly? A Ned? A Betty? A Peggy? These could be the diminutives of Mary, Edward, Elizabeth and Margaret. My great-grandmother went ‘missing’ among the historical sources I was searching in for Margaret Fleming and the simple solution was she was Maggie on all the official paperwork, her parents not using her ‘Sunday name’. I’d have assumed she would have been Margaret when being ‘recorded’ but no, she was Maggie when born in 1897 as she was on her marriage certificate. Interestingly, when the census enumerator reached Martindale he recorded the young girl as Margaret. My gran could have caused similar confusion although, as I had chance to listen to her life stories, I knew that, baptised Jane, when she went into domestic service another girl bearing that first name was already on the books, so she was given a ‘t’, and know as Janet for the rest of her life. I thought I had that one sorted though, looking for her with her given name as a small girl on the 1911 census. Fooled again, I couldn’t find her until I finally looked further, finding a Jennie in the right family grouping. My dad remembered her saying her father had had that particular pet name for her.

Many of us now start our family research using online resources and these too can throw us false leads or completely throw us off the scent. It’s important to remember that these online sources, where you enter a name, rely on the name indexing undertaken by employees or, more often, volunteers. They may simply be unfamiliar with the old and difficult handwriting, or make a mistake when typing up their results. We often would recognise a surname common in this area but indexers from the other end of the country may not and we all can key in inaccurate words when typing. On the 1881 census my relatives were not to be found in Grasmere, despite the fact I knew they had long been in the village. Searching online was fruitless but a trawl through the actual census copies revealed them there; on the census online index, letters of their surname had been transposed, rendering them Krikbys on Ancestry.com rather than Kirkbys. Got really stuck? Always go back to the original sources.

Look for clues as well as being alert to possible false leads. Families often carried favourite first names through a family line; if a liking for an unusual name was found in your family line this could make it much easier to spot. In Cumberland there was also a tendency to give a son the maiden name of the mother; in my family tree Nixon Armstrong was the offspring of William Armstrong and Sibby his wife (nee Nixon).

And just like the olden days, names nowadays are subject to change. Future family historians will do battle with the records, seeking divorcees reverting to their maiden names, brides retaining their birth names, husbands gaining a double-barrel with the addition of the wife’s surname and so on. Never mind those who just fancied a change and have a chosen moniker that suits their own taste, perhaps recognised in law through use of a deed poll. We too have been at it and, along with the other Cumbria Archive Centres in the county, have a new name: Cumbria Archive and Local Studies Centre, Whitehaven. We’re still in the large sandstone building next to Whitehaven’s police station though, housing West Cumbria’s archives, and a fantastic library of local studies books, pamphlets papers and other sources.

Your local Archive: Cumbria Archive and Local Studies Centre, Scotch Street, Whitehaven, www.cumbria.gov.uk/, archives gives further details and opening hours.

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk