Parish Registers for St Swithins, East Grinstead

[Romilly]

Yes, I think you're right artifis...

The Baptismal Entry that I was looking for was for 'Mille Dearling'. Perhaps spellings were guessed at?

Romilly.

[artifis]

I guess at that time a lot of the population were illiterate or semi literate so either couldn't spell their names or check that the person making the entry had spelt it correctly.  I think that the big differences between local dialects could also have an effect on what the person recording the information thought had been said. I can remember that living in a rural location in Berkshire in the late 40s as a kid I found the dialects of relatives living in Gloucestershire and East Sussex sometimes incomprehensible - it took me ages to understand what one of my aunts from a Gloucestershire rural area was called.   

[Romilly]

Artifis, - I'm sure that you're right. And the early Census returns would have been entirely based on verbal replies, - hence the mis spellings, etc!

Romilly