Saturday, August 21, 2010

SPELLING Surname SATURDAY

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HOWdeeeeeee,

Surnames, Everyone knows that is someone's Last name - Yes? Like mine is Morris.
Forename, is your own name - like mine is Katie.
& Middle names are like frosting, or sprinkles added on top. and maybe throw in a generation thing like -' the 2nd' or 'the III' ect..

Douglass, Douglas, Duglas

What happens when you look for someone and can't find them? OK I've had some I couldn't find, for instance a
'DOUGLASS' family. Yes, it really should have the 2 'ss', and later generations have dropped to 1 only.

I knew this guy had a place - most likely a farm and a family but they were nowhere in the old census. Hmmm. Well - towns in California were smaller then back in the 1800's. I knew the town - so I settled down and read thru every page in the census for it. & I found them - spelled 'DUGLAS' .


Times, Tims, Timmons ...

ANTHONY TIMMS my 3rd Greatgrandfather died in the mental hospital at Stockton, California. His wife Ann, didn't find out until she insisted on visiting him, forced a visit & then was told he'd been dead for 3 years! They had been telling her that visits upset him and not to come. And I won't go into the whole ball of wax about asylums here. Stockton had his name spelled wrong and thought it was another man who died. Which makes me wonder what about the other guys poor family - if he had one. However the officials butchered the name. I was in person at the San Joaquin records counter, & the girl couldn't find any kind of death record.
However, since then I have now a copy of his record at Stockton, after going thru several hoops. Times is the spelling on it. & Anthony is on the census of the Stockton Asylum more than one year. Again spelled wrong - but once I found the Asylum pages - I just read thru them all until I found him.

Several other times not finding the people, knowing the town - I have just sat and read every census page for it & found who I wanted. It's not always the writer on the original census page. OFten today, it's an eye twister trying to read the old fashioned script and they are put online spelled wrong. I'm sure I couldn't do that for a large city, but for the smaller towns I was looking at - it worked.

The Irish Census that just came online 1901-1911 and a name spelled wrong online. You can see the real page if you choose, but the online typist just didn't see the spelling I knew was correct. I see now after I sent in a few notes to correct, they have it spelled right. Emma Pakenham Evans/Disney - she a 1st cousin of Janes' husband, Mr. Evans.

Maybe it's mis-spelling, BAD handwriting, inked over pages :( , or you just don't see it there because your looking for a pristine image. Maybe you had a Martian trying to write names from Saturn - this does not compute - but they write it down the best they can anyway. Maybe it was a German trying to put down French names or whatever. You know the Spanish pronounce 'i' as 'e'. In English - 'HI' would be pronounced as 'he'. You have no way of knowing who actually wrote down the old records - but open your mind to other possibilities when you think you can't find someone

Happy Trails, Katiebird






Tuesday, August 3, 2010

MARMION - Tombstone Tuesday


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Howdeeeee!

A wonderful surprise today when I received this tombstone photo from my penpal, Bill Fahy of County Cork, Ireland.

Jane's father-in-law Reverend Edward Evans, had 1 natural sister - Elizabeth Barclay Evans who married Rev. John Brown. Jane was also a 1st cousin of Elizabeth ( thru their Scriven lines ). Elizabeth died very young, just after her only daughter was born & also named Elizabeth.

Elizabeth married Henry Richard Marmion.

This is the tombstone of Richard Walter Evans Marmion and family. His parents were Henry Richard Marmion & Elizabeth Barclay Evans Brown.

I've worked a few years trying to find this family stone. Bill has been such a kind person sending me information from his side of the Atlantic and making suggestions. I'm glad to say I've read & seen many interesting things from lovely people I've corresponded with. But we had pretty much decided that mother nature had reclaimed it. Probably even was aging into the ocean at a seaside cemetery.

This photo just came online this month of August 2010 !

" Photo by Mary Leonard-Walsh,Cork".
http://www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/cork/photos/tombstones/markers.htm
I wrote to Mary to thank her for her posting, and she so kindly sent me more photos of the Creagh cemetery & Church. A lovely lady that has taken a LOT of cemetery photos.

And now I have a copy. Here it is at last, the stone I had read about and couldn't find. Boom! So much is being submitted by wonderful volunteers. More and more every day at so many various sites, & for so many varied subjects. Never stop checking a site, like a closed book on the shelf when your done reading it. Keep a list on the side to remind yourself to go back and check - even if only once a year for new things. Say "HI". Make it easy for others to spot you and help. Don't expect people to search back thru the past years of entries and spot you.

I've written to some entries I had nothing to contribute, but to ask them since they are local people for their advice. Especially when it's a site overseas like in Ireland, England, Scotland ...
All have answered my ignorant questions so nicely. AND made several suggestions that led me to treasure.

Happy Trails, Katiebird