Most of us would have come across a remark like,

"that is not my family as the surname is spelled DAVIES, our family name is spelled DAVIS"

When you are tracing ancestors, one of the most common problems you will come across is the variations in the spelling of a surname. Here are some of the reasons why this happens.

Until the 19th century there were no standardised spellings for surnames. Around 90% of the population could not read or write, so spelling was not important.

Most documents were written by someone in authority, and when writing someone's name, they could only go by what was given to them by speech. So for example, if you have a REID ancestor who got married, they would give their name to the vicar, who would write it down as it was heard. Therefore, this line of your family can possibly be found under REID, REED or READ - and even REDE, all of which sound exactly the same.

Next time you are searching records and you can't find what you are looking for, try searching using a different spelling of the name and make use of features like Soundex which we have on our Web site, which lets you search the records based on how a surname sounds and not by how it is spelled.

Very useful. It's not just the spelling. A single visit to ones local library is well worthwhile to consult the IGI(Mormons)Index . Look for your name in your County and you will see all the variations, not only in spelling but also in forms. The diversity is extraordinary.

Roger

Tell me about it. I went around for the best part of 60 years believing that my paternal grandmother's maiden name was "Sterry". I then found that during the second half of the 19th century our particular branch of the numerous Sterrys of the Forest and thereabouts had somehow become different, and had become "Sterrey", an unusual spelling but verified on gravestones and elsewhere, including current use. If your name is spelt "Sterry" I may well be related to you despite having a grandma "Sterrey"!

I have a Stead(e) referred to as Steele in records, the latter is definitely wrong but some official records state it.
I also, (on another side of the family not related to the Forest of Dean people) have a very rare name which was spelt many, many, ways, presumably because people weren't familiar with it. A priest appears to have crossed it out twice and put a more common name that sounds like the name, presumably because he didn't believe what he'd been told! With RC records also English names were translated into their Latin equivalents so it is difficult to determine whether someone was know as Maria, or Mary, Marie, etc. unless there is another record to back it up.
The other thing to bear in mind is when transcriptions have been made that deciphering the handwriting can be a factor. I think the literacy of those who gathered census information is sometimes not what it should have been either. Even earlier records may also be from the time before spellings were formalised (i.e. before Dr. Johnson's dictionary).

I have found the same problem with Reeks & Reekes both names appearing in siblings of one family, then to cap it off when in UK last year I found it on a tombstone in Woolaston cemetery as Reecks!
Harold

Another thing
Bear in mind that the priest may come from a different geographical area, so may hear the name differently

It also pays to thing laterally and in terms of sounds.

I was researching an irish woman named Hanna Sale and found her listed as Anna Seal. I guess to english ears this is what her name sounds like with an irish accent. It was also wonderful because it is the closest I have to a voice recording of how she spoke.

When helping my husband's friend with his family tree from the West County - with the surname HOLLAND/ALLEN - as the 'H' is quiet/silent (unless you were 'Posh') with the West Country accent, (our teachers at School, always tried to make us sound our 'H's) - as is the 'D' at the end of a word. Some of the family stayed as HOLLAND, but some his family became ALLEN.

Visiting the FOD to see where my family came from, the local historian took us around, and showed us where folks had moved in from outside the County and called their large house 'Awre House'- He told us - Awre is pronounced - 'R' - so the house is actual fact was called ' 'R' ... 'ouse' (Our House)

A great site

www.bbc.co.uk/voices

Under the Heading- 'Where I live' .... click under Gloucestershire.

Keith Morgan, the Coleford Barber is especially interesting and Charles Harvey ex Miner.

You may have to download Realtime Player free from the BBC on this site - for the sound.

My Huntingdonshire gt-gt-grandmother Thomasin Fairey emigrated to the US in the early 1880s. She was 70 years old and accompanied her son. Her entry on the passenger list read "Tam Ferry", which also gave me an idea of her local accent. Her son's entry also read "Ferry".

There may also be a problem with the transcription from the original census, especially when the enumerator's handwriting is poor. Much fruitless hunting for Kathleen Aston eventually turned up as Kathrian Arton, which leads me to wonder how many other Astons ended up as Artons!

Some names begin with a soft consonent or a vowel sound - I'm thinking of WOMANS (probably rhyming with "romans") which may derive from YEOMANS or YOMANS / YEMANS, and can also be HOMANS, or HOOMANS or even HUMANS, etc. And also with or without the 'S'. Soundex doesn't work for these; each has to tried separately.

Another variety of names are these: SAYCE, SAISE, SAIES, SAYES, SAYS, SEYS, SEYES, etc. possibly all deriving from the Welsh SAIS (pronounced CICE with soft "c"s) meaning a Saxon or Englishman (cf. Scot's "Sassenach" for an Englishman). These names are found all down the English side of the Welsh border. Two SAISE brothers moved to Worcestershire and each (and their descendants) used the name SAITH. Perhaps because "saith" is the Biblical equivalent of the verb "says" (as in "it 'says' on the tin"). It is possible that these names could drop the final "s" and become SAY or SEY - a very different name perhaps of Norman origin. I haven't come across an example yet but I keep aware of the possibility.

Incidentally, the IGI's Soundex doesn't recognise the 'sameness' of SAYS and SEYS - they have to be entered separately.

Our name SEYS is probably derived from SAIS but we pronounce it the same as SAYCE.
Judith Seys