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Post by Cornish Terrier on Jul 20, 2009 7:10:54 GMT -5
A note about confusing christian names that I am sure we have all encountered.
This one is about the name - Christian.
I have often said in the past that the names Catherine and Christian are often interchanged so that if you have someone baptised as Christian(a) they might be married or buried as Catherine.
Here is a perfect example from the family of Andrew Nicholls who married Christian Richards at Gulval in 1765:-
William son of Andrew Nicholls baptised 12th August 1770 at Gulval
Christiana daughter of Andrew Nicholls baptised 23rd August 1772 at Gulval
William son of Andrew and Christian Nicholls baptised 14th May 1775 at St Ives
William son of Andrew Nicholls formerly of Gulval now St Ives buried 9th June 1774 at Gulval
Catherine dau. of the above named Andrew Nicholls of St Ives buried 27th June 1774 at Gulval
So be aware that if you have e.g. a Catherine for whom you cannot find a baptism then be sure to check of a Christian born/baptised around the right time. (and vice versa of course)
This is not the only name we the problem may be encountered so it is adviseable to consider possible variants of names particularly when dealing with earlier periods.
CT
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Post by Mal on Jul 20, 2009 10:04:12 GMT -5
That's interesting CT, I'll have to see how many Christian/Catherine possibilities I have! Another one to bear in mind is this. ELIZA and ELIZABETH were not considered to be the same. I didn't know this and had been confused by some birth entries, thinking the dates must have been wrong and that they were about the same person. Up until the mid 19th century the two names were considered completely different, Eliza was not short for Elizabeth in other words. I have one example of two sisters (half), one Eliza, the other Elizabeth. Other christian names to watch out for are Tom, Thomas and Tobias. Tobmas (i.e. Thomas) with a Cornish pronunciation gets confused with Tobias. Abednego, Ben and Benjamin. Because of the Cornish dialect adding a "d" in front of an "n", an ancestor named Ben would have said "Bedn", hence confusion with Abednego. Likewise the difference between Benny/Ben and Abednego would not have been obvious. Francis and Frances often get confused. Jack from John or from Latin Jacobus, i.e. James. Likewise Jacob and James. Peggy from Margaret (how they arrived at that one beats me!  ) Anyone got any others? |
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Post by donne on Jul 20, 2009 11:24:16 GMT -5
There seems to be an equivalence between Josiah and Isiah (often spelt Isaiah) - that caused me a bit of problem before I realised that I only had a single individual called interchangeably Josiah or Isiah, and not two.
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Post by sue on Jul 20, 2009 13:53:55 GMT -5
Margery and Margaret sometimes take turn and turn about; definitely confusing when I'm looking at 2 M Curnows alive at the same time in late 1700s Towednack....
The Christian/Catherine interchange may be of help to me in due course though, as I have a few of both, and they're not all fully sorted yet.....
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Post by Cornish Terrier on Jul 20, 2009 14:58:55 GMT -5
And don't forget:-
Polly for Mary
Padgey for Margaret - one that is not seen often but is certainly there.
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Post by Mal on Jul 22, 2009 5:04:25 GMT -5
One that threw me for years was Nelly fron Ellen, or Helen- depends if they pronounced their "h" 's, which in West Penwith was probably not the case! Me 'ansum! Now if a maid, , were named "Eleonora" it's quite possible we could get Nelly, Elly, or even Ellen and then on the other hand Nora. At the moment I have an odd name that has come up, NORREG/NORREY Keigwin, female! IGI lists two Norreg's for the whole of Cornwall and the Paul Baptisms record Norrey. I know it can be a surname as well... but it did cross my mind if it were not perhaps Eleonora. |
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Post by Zenobia on Jul 22, 2009 8:09:26 GMT -5
I believe the confusion between Christian and Catherine arose because the common nickname for each was "Kitty". A parish clerk who knew one of his parishioners only as "Kitty" Glasson, for example, might choose the wrong given name. I saw this happen in several families that I was researching. The same thing happens in my Penna. Dutch research, where Margaret and Rebecca frequently become interchangeable because of the similar sound of Peggy and Becky when pronounced with a German accent.
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Post by londoner on Jul 22, 2009 8:58:09 GMT -5
Jenifer - Jane is one I have come across a few times.
Also Amy - Emma
diminutives seem to cause plenty of confusion eg: Elizabeth/Eliza/Elizth(as beloved of census writers)/Betty/Betsey and later Beth
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Post by tonymitch on Jul 22, 2009 9:01:14 GMT -5
1851 census records Mary Oats as 'Nanny'. My mother Margaret was always known as 'Peggy' whilst my father's sister Margaret was always known as 'Maggie'. She married a Francis Joseph Keegan who was always known as 'Paddy'. I have a sister-in-law Cornelia known as 'Nellie', whist Auntie Bessie was really Elizabeth. I remember a 'Mo' who was actually 'Moses' and I worked with a 'Mo' whose given name was Mohamed.
Tony M
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Post by tonymitch on Jul 22, 2009 9:03:01 GMT -5
Londoner.....just left a friend 'Betsey' whose given name is actually Beata.
Tony M
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Post by londoner on Jul 22, 2009 9:06:36 GMT -5
And then you get those annoying folk (like me) who give their child two Christian names and use the middle one! Schools hate it and what it will due for genealogists of the future I hate to think! ;D
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Post by Cornish Terrier on Jul 22, 2009 19:16:16 GMT -5
Are you sure you have not been recycled a few times over the centuries   Seems to me that you are doing now what our ancestors did all those years ago - deliberately provided information designed to confuse and mislead future generations! ;D Of course there were also those who took the easy way out. They found it easier to confuse and mislead us by supplying no information at all!!  As for Francis Joseph Keegan - sounds somewhat Irish to me and I suspect that might be where the 'Paddy' came from.  |
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Post by tonymitch on Jul 23, 2009 18:05:31 GMT -5
I had two good friends whose middle names were their 'used' names. Hospital out patient appointments were very confusing due to the nurses insisting on calling them by their first name. They just didn't react, which gave the impression that they didn't only have physical ailments but were dementing also.
Correct CT...Uncle Paddy's parents came from Cork.
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Post by Mal on Jul 24, 2009 7:10:41 GMT -5
My family are a bit odd when it comes to names. I had an auntie Barbara who was known as Tedie, from Edith because my G-Grandfather had a favourite cousin called Edith and liked the name! It's really confusing to know what her name actually was! Also, because we all tend to have a lot of middlenames it can get confusing! I don't wish to disclose too much information about living relatives etc, but nearly all the John's in my family had another first name and so to avoid confusion everyone called them John- however this in turn called confusion and so they ended up resorting to Young John and Big John etc... in the end one ended up being known as Bob, from Robert- his original first name! Then my G-G-Grandfather who was John Sampson, invariably known as John, Jack and.... Sam! Without this knowledge someone could have ended up on a wild goose chase looking for a Samuel!
A couple of my brick walls have led me to wonder!
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