Mansell or Mousell ? (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Sunday, March 04, 2018, 00:17 (2450 days ago) @ ChrisW

Hi Chris,
thanks for reminding me abt this post which I did look into but admittedly forgot about. Belated but heartfelt welcome to the forum Bob, and my sincere apologies for not replying !. We hope you gain lots from the forum as well as all the other excellent resources elsewhere on this FoD FH website.

Ref Clearwell, don't forget that like so many other Churches in the Forest, Clearwell's wasn't built until long after the 1790s, hence Newland was the only real choice available in the western FoD at that time, plus of course it's very near Clearwell village.

Bob,
I preume you mean this PR from this site's database ?.

Record_ID: 391733
Entry_Number:
Year: 1790
Month: Nov
Day: 28
Parents_Surname: MOUSEL
Child_Forenames: William
Fathers_Forenames: Thomas
Mothers_Forenames: Catharine
Mothers_Surname:
Residence: Clearwell
Occupation:
Officiating_Minister:
Event: Baptism
Memoranda:
Notes: Any abbreviated forenames have been expanded to the full name
Register_Reference: P227 IN 1/4
Page_Number: 800
Parish_Chapel: Newland
Soundex: M240

Bob, have you viewed the actual photographic image of the Parish Record which is perhaps on Ancestry ?. Also, have you submitted a request for the transcription to be checked ?.
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/joomla/help-faq/database-correction-request-form

I ask as I'm currently unable to access Ancestry so cannot view the PR if it's there, but it seems that it isn't the easiest to read. I see a slight discrepancy between this FoD site's transcription and that on Familysearch which contains a few spelling variations including spelling his surname with two "l"s.

Name William Mousell
Gender Male
Christening Date 28 Nov 1790
Christening Date (Original) 28 NOV 1790
Christening Place NEWLAND,GLOUCESTER,ENGLAND
Father's Name Thos Mousell
Mother's Name Cathere

???

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Altho you are indeed currect regarding the high likelihood of spelling variations and errors due to strong dialects and poor literacy skills, which sometimes also included members of the clergy as well as the locals, personally I'm not convinced that Mansell and Mousell could be one of these such names. To my mind they sound different, but then again I don't know just how capable the clergy cleric was at the time, or even how good his hearing or memory was !
I guess almost anything is possible in this respect.

Have you found William Mousell b1790 in the 1841 etc Census ?. Or maybe some of his relatives, or indeed other Clearwell Mousells ?. Have any of these been transcribed as Mansell, or vice versa ?
This might enable you to gain an insight into the accuracy of the PRs for this surname at that time, perhaps variations were not uncommon.