Post by Mal on Jul 14, 2009 6:21:14 GMT -5
Hello everyone,
I thought some of this info might help people-
Names and spellings can be a problem- especially when dealing with transcriptions and old documents that can be nigh on impossible to read at times. I have had a few ups and downs with problems like this, e.g. a horsedriver that turned out to be a hairdresser and a sailor who turned out to be a tailor! It always seems to me that that one link we need is always the one that is ambiguous.
I have an Edward Tregurtha, I am 99% sure it's he, and if so I can go back hundreds of years on a line- but, and this is a big but, he is recorded as TREGORRA in the records, the parents' names match so I am happy but it always leaves that niggling doubt there in your mind- especially in this case as Tregorra is also a feasible surname. I suppose the same goes for CT's Trewhellas and Trewollas, and when it comes to Davey, Davis and Davies, well, let's not go there!
I have always been suspicious of aliases and thanks to my suspicion and lack of foresight I managed to miss a link. I had a Kearne (alt. Kerne, Kearn) and has thought it was a form connected to Kernow/Curnow etc. until I found the reference in Vivian's Visitations that Kearne was the alias name of the Tresilian family, sometimes recorded as Tresulyan! Bob's your uncle, I found the lines!
I remember there was a query regarding the Chynoweth family a while back. Well, I have recently found a connection to the Chynoweth family in Vivian's again, that states they were anciently known as the Trevelisick family. The younger son received his inheritance and built a new homestead, i.e. "chy noweth" in Cornish, "new house", and when the elder branch of the Trevelisicks died out the name Chynoweth was kept. The spellings vary from Chinoweth, Chinouth to Chenough. Even Lieut. Vivian is not always consistand on the same pedigree with spellings.
This brings me to the question of how much of this went on? How much could we be barking up the wrong trees with surnames and families and how much has also been lost? Old Cornish names dying out and becoming English/Anglicised or Normanised!
It also brings me to my own problematic family, the Vingoes. The Vingoes were by all accounts an ancient family of "minor gentry" with a long history in the Sennen area. Family legends and local folklore all suggest a Norman origin and the old story about being winetasters to Duke William is perhaps attested in the name "vin gout", "wine taste". Was this Vingoe name a bit like Chynoweth? Was it perhaps a "new" name, or a "nickname". The family of Butler, Le Boteler/Pincerna were established in the area and were of course the "servants", i.e. "butlers" in a regal sense to the Norman Kings. Perhaps this is where the nickname or "hypocorism" (-good word for Scrabble!!! ) originated?
Anyway, enough of my ramblings on about things. Hope this might give someone some pointers! Watch out for the spellings and the nicknames, and also the dreaded "aliases".
M
I thought some of this info might help people-
Names and spellings can be a problem- especially when dealing with transcriptions and old documents that can be nigh on impossible to read at times. I have had a few ups and downs with problems like this, e.g. a horsedriver that turned out to be a hairdresser and a sailor who turned out to be a tailor! It always seems to me that that one link we need is always the one that is ambiguous.
I have an Edward Tregurtha, I am 99% sure it's he, and if so I can go back hundreds of years on a line- but, and this is a big but, he is recorded as TREGORRA in the records, the parents' names match so I am happy but it always leaves that niggling doubt there in your mind- especially in this case as Tregorra is also a feasible surname. I suppose the same goes for CT's Trewhellas and Trewollas, and when it comes to Davey, Davis and Davies, well, let's not go there!
I have always been suspicious of aliases and thanks to my suspicion and lack of foresight I managed to miss a link. I had a Kearne (alt. Kerne, Kearn) and has thought it was a form connected to Kernow/Curnow etc. until I found the reference in Vivian's Visitations that Kearne was the alias name of the Tresilian family, sometimes recorded as Tresulyan! Bob's your uncle, I found the lines!
I remember there was a query regarding the Chynoweth family a while back. Well, I have recently found a connection to the Chynoweth family in Vivian's again, that states they were anciently known as the Trevelisick family. The younger son received his inheritance and built a new homestead, i.e. "chy noweth" in Cornish, "new house", and when the elder branch of the Trevelisicks died out the name Chynoweth was kept. The spellings vary from Chinoweth, Chinouth to Chenough. Even Lieut. Vivian is not always consistand on the same pedigree with spellings.
This brings me to the question of how much of this went on? How much could we be barking up the wrong trees with surnames and families and how much has also been lost? Old Cornish names dying out and becoming English/Anglicised or Normanised!
It also brings me to my own problematic family, the Vingoes. The Vingoes were by all accounts an ancient family of "minor gentry" with a long history in the Sennen area. Family legends and local folklore all suggest a Norman origin and the old story about being winetasters to Duke William is perhaps attested in the name "vin gout", "wine taste". Was this Vingoe name a bit like Chynoweth? Was it perhaps a "new" name, or a "nickname". The family of Butler, Le Boteler/Pincerna were established in the area and were of course the "servants", i.e. "butlers" in a regal sense to the Norman Kings. Perhaps this is where the nickname or "hypocorism" (-good word for Scrabble!!!
) originated? Anyway, enough of my ramblings on about things. Hope this might give someone some pointers! Watch out for the spellings and the nicknames, and also the dreaded "aliases".
M