Genealogy Chat

It really does -- and I'm not just talking about the gawdawful txtspk we are subjected to in some posts.

The important things in posts on the Find Ancestors board (and Find Living Relatives board) are the *names*.

Search engines like Google now regularly pick up posts at this website. So if someone searches for a particular phrase and it is in a post at this site, Google will probably find it. This is a good thing (unless the post is one of the ones that contains inappropriate personal information).

Also, this site itself can be searched, using either the search box at the top of individual boards or the Advanced Search function to search all boards at once.

If your ancestor is JACOB VARLEY and you are looking for other people with the same ancestor, you want them to be able to find you.

But if you put up a post here and the subject line says

Looking for JACOB VARLY born ....

then people looking for "Jacob Varley", either at this site or by an internet search engine, are not going to find you.

Proofread before and after you post.

If you find mistakes after you post, use the Edit link in your post to fix them.

No point in hiding from the people you want to find you!


I know, I know, the people who need to see this aren't going to.

But -- if we old hands keep an eye out for mistakes like this -- and they do happen all the time -- we can helpfully suggest that people edit their posts to put the correct spelling, not for us, but for themselves.

But there's always a fly in the ointment....

The further you go back the more likely to are to find spelling variations in the actual records. In the days when many people were illiterate their names would be written down by census enumerators, registrars, vicars etc according to how they sounded. So, to take your example, Jacob Varley could well turn up in a parish register or a census record as Jacob Varly. There are quite a few changes of spelling along the way in my family tree.

Allan

You are quite right,I have been looking for a family from 1770's and the name is Haycock.
I found who I was looking for but the name was pronounced Acock in the Parish records .....so it is even how people spoke too.

Suex

"But there's always a fly in the ointment...."

Yes, and its name is AllanC?!

Yes, yes, spelling variants. I should have picked a different example, shouldn't I?

You're really looking for Joseph Varley, but you type Joseph Barley.

Howzat? ;-)

Other examples of the H/A that we've seen hear, off the top of my head, are Heaton/Eaton, and Arkless/Harkless just the other day.

I wonder whether I should start looking for my elusive Francis Hill in 1841 and 1861 as Francis Ill?! ... Okay, that looks like Francis the 3rd. Francis ILL.

What I'm really talking about, though, isn't searching in parish or census records, it's somebody searching this site, or googling, for a particular name. They'll likely start with the "standard" version of the name, the same one a poster here is using.

The original point was well made though! I have read many posts where the name was spelled in 2 or more different ways by the poster. They are usually asking about more recent ancestors where they are giving grandparents names or the name has perhaps been taken from certificates -if they can't decide which is the correct spelling, surely they are only making things more difficult for anyone wishing to help?

Okay, somebody is pulling my leg, right?


AllanC said:

"But there's always a fly in the ointment...."

And I replied that its name must be AllanC ... with a couple of punctuation marks ... and somebody is seriously claiming that they believe this was not a joke?

The petty vindictiveness around here amazes even me sometimes.

The rest of my post, I will reconstruct in the next post, because I'm sure this one will be reported as soon as I post it.

The rest of my post went on to say something along these lines:

Yes, yes, I picked a bad example. ;-) How about if you are looking for Joseph Varley but you mistype it as Joseph Barley?

We have seen the H/A pronunciation variations here often. Heaton/Eaton, and on this board just the other day, Harkness/Arkness.

Maybe I should start looking for my elusive Francis Hill in 1841 and 1861 as Francis Ill! -- which I then remarked looked like Francis the 3rd -- Francis ILL.

I continued to say that my main point had to do with searches at this site or by internet search engines, not in old parish records or censuses.

So someone searching for the same person would likely be starting with the standard spelling, and if they're searching for Joseph Varley they won't find a post here about Joseph Barley (or even Varly).

A suggestion intended to be helpful to users, especially new ones. Hit me upside the head with a cedar 2x4 for daring to post such a thing.

Other JC: Not until they give us html functions here so you can post in italics.

;-)


And thank you, Christine. My point exactly!

As far as I am aware there never has been a standardised spelling of names.

One of the difficulties that I am reasonably sure most people researching their ancestors have probably encountered somewhere along the way is that the surnames of their ancestors may have been recorded using a different version of the spelling of their surname.

As has already been mentioned there are many reasons for such spelling variations and who is to say which version is likely to be the one that the individual might have chosen as their own.

If the poster is seeking to find another GR member who may have a connection to the ancestor then I would counsel that they should use the spelling of the ancestors name that they feel the other GR member is most likely to recognise.

Jonesy


may I dare to disagree with you?


I think it better to give the modern version in the title. Older spellings can be given in the first sentence, something along the lines of:-

"Looking for Varley

Variant spellings are Varley / Varly / Vahly / Barley .........."

I think in most cases of postings on here being found on Google, at least the first few words of the body are also shown.


OR the title could be something like "Varley / Varly / Vahly / Barley" ...... always remembering of course that there is a limit to the number of characters in the title.



Janey ................. a good point!



sylvia

Sylvia,

Of course you can disagree with me.

What sort of world would it be if we all agreed with one another all of the time. (lol)

P.S. Check your spelling of my board name. ;-)

I think you just sort of proved your own point Janey. It wasn't Harkness/Arkness the other day, it was Harkless/Arkless. Forgive my chuckle, I just happened to notice the slip......nothing more. I do agree with you though and think it is best to try the usual spelling first as a starting point. The odds are greater for finding who you are looking for under that. If variations have already been found in some records found or for other members of the family, those variations on the name could be mentioned too as possibilities and then all angles would be covered in google type searches.

Edit: Oops..... Sylvia already suggested much the same.

Ha ha. Shall I say I did that on purpose?!

I had a huge laugh on another board a while back when someone had taken me to task about some grammatical thing (in a discussion about guns ...), and almost immediately did the same thing himself. Had to do with what form of the verb to use with a collective noun, I think ... Is "the NRA" an it or a they ...



Really, folks, I'm not talking about spelling variants.

I'm talking about typing mistakes.

Shall I try again? -- somebody types

Mray Simht

when they're really looking for Mary Smith.

;-)

Sorry JC but I just could not resist

"Spelling counts!"

Strange title for someone talking about typing mistakes.

As the hedgehog said as he climbed off the scrubbing brush, "We all make mistakes" ;-)

Not taking your point, Jonesey, I fear.

Typing mistakes result in misspellings, and misspelled names can mean that searches don't find the posts. That was mine.

And once again, my only intention here is to help out posters who could miss out on contacts by spelling their peeps' names wrong in their posts.


PigletsPal, my gr-grfather got his sorely wrong. His name was Hill, but he spelled it Monck!

;-)

At least you managed to spell and type my board name correctly JC ;-)

This time, Jonesey!

sorry Jonesey



mea culpa!

My cousin has just informed me that he now has 12 variations of his surname if you include spelling errors & mistranscriptions.
The irony is that it´s not really his surname at all. His 3xg grandfather was illegitimate & was baptised with his mother´s surname. He took his stepfather´s surname when his mother married & that is the name which now has 12 variations.
Bet my cousin wishes his ancestor had stuck to his birth name.
Marion

I have to agree with you Janey........it's such a time waster when someone posts asking for info on (for example) Joseph Smith born 1930 in Blackpool, and on checking the BMD index I find there are 2, one spelt Josef the other Joseph.

So I start looking for further info on the one spelt Joseph, as per the poster's spelling, only to later find that it was in fact the other Josef. :-(

Mary