Surname Spelling post migration

[Tamsin Greig]

Hi All

I am researching a William Dougherty (apparently pronounced Docherty according to family members) born Glasgow, Scotland, according to his daughter's Marriage Certificate dated 24 June, 1903 in NSW, Australia.

He married Margaret Carson who is listed as deceased on the Marriage Cert.  I have since found she died a little under a month before the wedding.  She died on 27 April 1903 aged 49 years making her born in either 1854 or 1855 (depending on the birth month).

 I have located William's tombstone in a cemetery in Lithgow, NSW, Australia with the date of death listed as 10 November 1928 Aged 76.  This would mean he was born in 1852.  On the Births, Deaths and Marriages website NSW the names of Margaret's parents, William and Margaret, are listed. Both Margaret and William share a tombstone.

I have gone through the Marriages in Glasgow and have found a Marriage Certificate dated 7 June 1872 between a Margaret Carson (aged 18) and William Docherty (aged 20).  Her parents are listed as William and Margaret.  This all seems to fit!!

Obviously between 1872 and the birth of one of their children in 1882 they travelled to Australia - I am still hunting down the ship on which they travelled.

Does anyone know if it was a common practice for Scottish Emmigrants to Australia to change the spelling of their surname?  If so, everything fits and the search can continue given I have William Dougherty and Margaret Carson's parent's names!!!!

Any help would be appreciated.

Regards
Tam 

[aghadowey]

Docherty is merely a variation of the surname Doherty. There are various reasons to change the spelling of a surname, not limited to Scotland.

[avm228]

Hello Tam and a warm welcome to Rootschat

It was very common in the 19th century for the spelling of a personal name to vary as between different records, whether people emigrated or not.  Literacy levels were low and often the record-keeper simply did his best to write down his best attempt at what he had heard. As a result there is much more fluidity in names at that time which is one of the many challenges we family historians have fun grappling with.

The marriage you've found looks very promising.

[carol8353]

Hi Tamsin

And a warm welcome to Rootschat.

I always use the example of my own name ,Carol.
Sometimes people spell it correctly and other times as Carole.

That's in our modern world where most people have been to school and know how to spell.You will spell something the way you think is correct.

So imagine back then when names were hardly ever written down and people didn't have copious forms to fill in like they do today.

If you are looking for Scottish ancestors maybe this post would be better being moved to a relevant Scottish board?

Carol

[Spidermonkey]

There is an arrivals record into NSW in OCtober 1883 on board the Ellora:

William Docherty (30)
Margaret Docherty (28)
Margaret Docherty (8 )
Louisa Docherty (7)
William Dochert (3)
Sarah Docherty (1)

[admin08]

Same query on Lanarkshire board with reply:
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=606728.msg4561951#msg4561951

[sancti]

On William and Margaret's marriage record did he sign his name or make his mark X

In those days spelling was not important for names and it was written as heard by the official who was recording the event

[Redroger]

Education has meant that we have become much more obsessed with spelling than our ancestors ever were. A clergyman at baptism wrote down what he heard. So did other people who could write. Indeed Shakespeare spelled his own name at least 3 different ways whilst writing his own will. So, spelling is not really that important at all.

[Jeuel]

In my own family tree I have all these spelling variants:

Chown/Chowns/Chouns
Emms/Emmes/Hems
Gray/Grey
Mealing/Mailin/Mealins/Melin/Malen
Purvey/Purvye/Purvy
Smoothy/Smoothey/Smothey

plus many other examples.  It really depends upon who is writing it down and how they choose to spell it.

It does make it tricky when trying to track ancestors down though.  I finally found my gt x 3 grandmother Kezia Seals's baptism as Kezia Saul.  Her siblings' baptisms were recorded as Sall and Seale and the name seems to have finally settled as Sales!

Rather than be hung up about spelling, I'd say if everything else fits you've found the right person.