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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition => Topic started by: Jadea55 on Tuesday 22 June 21 09:09 BST (UK)
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Hello,
I was hoping someone would be able to help me figure out why these names have been written differently.
I have noticed on multiple records MacPherson seem to have been written differently. For people I know are MacPhersons some of the records show an uppercase M a little C (which sometimes looks like the @ sign) at the top and a dot underneath the c, has anyone seen this before?
My great-grandfather was born Duncan MacPherson, it is written MacPherson on his birth certificate and on his gravestone, however on my grandfathers birth certificate the names have been written with the little c and dot
Was this a way of writing Mac ?
Thanks in advance for any help!
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I think you will find that Mac, Mc. & Mc are all interchangeable. Many people would only hear the name spoken - and they would spell it as they thought it should be written.
The name may change though generations, or even within someone's lifetime - particularly if they moved from a Scottish culture to somewhere else - like Australia or USA etc.
There is no significance to the different spellings, or appearance. When searching for Mac names, you need to keep this in mind.
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Hello Jadea55,
I was born and I have researched my Mac relatives, I have seen all spellings. Although I know my name when working in Scotland they kept "correcting" it for me was relieved when I got married so no longer have this problem.
Regards
Sarah
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The full thing is Mac. Mc, Mc., Mc and M' are all just abbreviations of it. M' is common in 19th century newspapers. There is no significance to the different spellings and they are all pronounced the same. In many older records the spelling is that of the clerk. When you do find a name written by the person themselves, there is often no consistency in how they spell it. Exactly the same applies to non-Mac surnames too. The same person can spell their name two or three different ways in the same document. It is only in more recent times that great weight has been given to consistency in spelling.
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I agree with the other answers here.
I have all the variants for my ancestors. :-) I quickly got used to searching for Mac/Mc//Mc/Mc. & Co.
As GR2 says, M' is also a possibility. I have only found this once in my family, on the wedding cert for one of my XGGrandfathers. Elsewhere (on other certs) he is shown as MacDonald or McDonald.
It would be too easy for us if everything were to be homogeneous... ;D
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As GR2 says, M' is also a possibility.
The M' spelling is particularly useful to be aware of when searching 19th century newspaper sites. Quite often M'Duff will bring up results which don't appear if you enter MacDuff or McDuff.
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As GR2 says, M' is also a possibility.
The M' spelling is particularly useful to be aware of when searching 19th century newspaper sites. Quite often M'Duff will bring up results which don't appear if you enter MacDuff or McDuff.
My 19th century Scottish-born Mc ancestor got a few mention in local newspapers, usually reports of court cases.
There are several examples of his signature. He was consistent, always signing with a large M followed by a tiny c, the form my family still use. His wife couldn't write. Births and deaths of their children were variously registered as "Mac___" or "Mc___" and spelling of the second part of the name wasn't consistent in those records. His name was spelled differently on a census return when he was listed as a lodger. From that record I surmised that he pronounced it differently ("the Scottish way") to how he wrote it.
Local English people pronounced my family's written surname differently again, with emphasis on the "Mac" part. My ancestor's widow's 2nd husband didn't write either. First census after their marriage has her son from her first marriage as "Mack ___". His name was incorrectly transcribed in an index under the second part of the surname with "Mack" as a middle name. It reverts to his father's spelling on the next census and all subsequent documents for him and other members of the family. He and a younger sister could write and he became an insurance agent later in adult life so he was accustomed to keeping accurate records.
Mac/Mc, like the O' prefix, may have been omitted on some records or transcriptions or indexes.
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A suggestion for you when researching these names. Where wildcards are available on searches, do use them! One of my main lines is MacDonald, so I learnt the hard way :-\ to search as M*cDonald (even M*cDon*, as sometimes it can show as McDonnell).
You can use wildcards on www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
Monica
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Thank you so much for all your responses.
The big issue I'm having is my great grandfathers war history. I have found a a few records that I think might be him but because the spelling is wrong I can't be sure and knowing a lot of records were destroyed I can't go further back apart from the medal cards!
I have searched most abbreviations of Mac and the only records I can find are Mc (the other Mac I found was not him)
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My late father was part of the Scottish Highland clan of M'Kenzie; McKenzie; Mackenzie; Mckinsie. When reading old historical documents anyone with that surname is just noted as "M", such as John M, etc.
"Mac" means the "son of"
If you're interested in the origins and meaning of your clan surname you might be surprised at the meaning.
There was no right or wrong way of spelling a Scottish Clan surname in years gone by. Even during my lifetime every parish/village, etc., had their own local pronunciations and any stranger to the wider area would write down what they heard.
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One thing I have noticed is that the Welsh and Irish clans usually use the "Mc" variation thus one of the Irish surnames on my ancestral tree is always "McCarthy" - excepting where an official was used to writing down Scottish son of X (MacX).
If you post the medal card on the military board somebody will be able to explain the wheres and whyfors of the regiment, the regimental numbering and the medals, etc
Best Wishes, Rena
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Mc/Mac names can also appear in documents as M', for example M'Keon.
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To confuse matters even further, female forms of Irish "Mc" names, when spoken or written in Irish, aren't Mac or Mc. Female form varies according to her relationship to the significant man in her life. She might be "Mhic" (wife of) or "Ni" or "Nic" (daughter of).
There may be examples on 1911 census of Ireland.
Female form of "Mac" in Scots Gaelic is "Nic".
More confusion. Some of my Irish ancestors were Nicholson. It's possible that they were also known as McNicholas (or similar) in Ireland.
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I hoped that there might have been a reasoning behind how it was written, I think I might just be grasping at straws to try and make sense of all of this!! :-\
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I hoped that there might have been a reasoning behind how it was written, I think I might just be grasping at straws to try and make sense of all of this!! :-\
If you have seen an old page that contained at least two people with the same Scottish Clan surname and one was written with a short form version = Mc; M' ... and one was written with the full version of "Mac". Then it's a good guess that the person with the "Mac" held some sort of elevated position in the area and wasn't a labourer for instance.
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There really is no significance at all. Here is a clan chief (Caledonian Mercury) with an abbreviated mac and a labourer (Inverness Courier) without an abbreviation.
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My maternal Grandfather lived with his family on the Island of Luing in the Inner Hebrides, and were Gaelic speakers, but also spoke English. Their name was spelled as McLean. His father went on the Arizona Goldrush, and was logged in the US Census, Tombstone, Arizona as Mc Lean.
The family moved to Glasgow about 1900, and they decided that they would now be MacLean.
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Ireland is exactly the same as Scotland. M’, Mc, Mac are all interchangeable and the spelling will often flow between them all within the same family. As in Scotland, the further back you go the more common M’ becomes.
The idea of a single or correct spelling for a surname or a place name in Ireland is very much a recent phenomenon designed to meet the needs of modern officialdom. Before that there was no consistency. Names were spelled phonetically and each variation was down to the whim of the particular person recording the information. You will often see the spelling change as the records go back. This rarely indicates a deliberate decision to alter the name, nor even a mistake. Not everyone was literate, but even when they were, exact and consistent spelling simply wasn’t something they bothered about. In addition to varying the actual spelling, O’ or Mac prefixes were optional and were often omitted.
In 1899, the Rev Smith reviewed the early records of Antrim 1st Presbyterian church (covering the years 1674 to c 1736). He noted: “Even the same word is not always spelled alike by the same hand. Indeed spelling with most of the recording officials (and they must have been fairly numerous) was a matter of the most sublime indifference. The name William, for instance, is spelled 3 different ways in as many lines; while Donegore, a neighbouring parish, is spelled 10 different ways; but these extend over a good number of years. Many families names are spelled phonetically, while others are given in the most round-about fashion.”
So expect spelling to vary. That was the norm.