Editor's Notes, Names

EDITOR’S NOTES NAMES T his issue seemed to be about names long before John T. Humphrey submitted an article explaining the origin of German naming traditions. Stephen B. Hatton found many additional variant spellings for the German surname Fought/Focht/Vogt, plus the puzzle of Johannes and Johan, both of which translate to John. In researching the individuals mentioned in the Miscellaneous Papers of the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting presented by Sandra M. Hewlett, I found similar variety in English names. One individual, for example, was found in records with the given name Randal, Randall, Randolph, and Ralph and with the surname Spakeman, Spackman, Spikeman, Speakman, and (erroneously) Sparkman. Common surnames are particularly difficult to research, and for that reason we made a special effort to include several sets of records for the surnames Davis and Johnson, which are two of the five most common in the early United States. Bibles often have absolutely no information or clues about the locality in which the family resided, so I do enough research to place them geographically. Much of that research is in electronic resources, forcing me to deal with name variants. Each resource requires a different set of search parameters and techniques–and a great deal of flexibility–to find the information and to do so efficiently. Although these are records from the Bible collection at the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, many of them are from outside Pennsylvania, so searches cannot always be limited by geography. Sometimes details of names give us insight into people. In one Johnson Bible record, there are several entries for Elner Johnson. Only in her death entry is it Elnor. Her mother’s name is also written as Elner, except in her death entry, in which it is Ellenor. It seems readily apparent that they were named Eleanor or Elenor and that it is “spelled wrong” in the Bible. Or is that true? We must remember that pronunciation in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries still had a strong English influence and that regional accents were quite strong, so it is quite likely that the middle syllable of this name was almost entirely dropped when spoken (think of how some people pronounce Eleanor Roosevelt’s name). Our ancestors were people, not names. We need to remember that. Patricia Law Hatcher, CG, FASG 198 Final copy 31 January, 2010 Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine Vol. 43 (2004)