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   

[Rena]

I've got a few instances in the same period of different spellings of names on census and bmd's which you'd think shouldn't really happen when all the population attended schools. 

Leaving aside the usual different spellings of anyone with a "Mc" or "Mac" in their surname.  I've got a Wallis born in Yorkshire, but when he moved to a different English county further north his name was then changed to that county's normal spelling of Wallace - he died 1940s.

Whenever my Scottish grandfather's uncle (a John Crum) moved to follow the work his surname took on the local spelling too which was either Crum, Crumb or Crumbie.
 
I also have a German immigrant in my line where the "a" is pronounced like an "e", thus his surname of "Flamme" became "Flemme" and eventually "Fleming". 
I recently obtained Police archive documents dated 1917 to 1942 concerning the registration of foreign "Aliens" in Britain. There's stacks of police letters in which they affirm that Mr Fleming was the same person as Flemme and flamme.  The latest queries were in 1942 - a couple of letters from life insurance companies to the police who wanted confirmation that their late client Mr Flamme was the same person as the Mr Fleming who died in 1942.

I think you've probably found your family.

[admin08]

Same query on Common Room board with replies-
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,606720.msg4561736.html#msg4561736