Mailing List:2006-05-11 02, Re: Spelling variants, by William G. Whitney

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Mailing List Archives > 2006-05-11 02, Re: Spelling variants, by William G. Whitney

From: "W.G. 'Bill' Whitney" <wwhitney -at- telusplanet.net> Subject: Re: [WHITNEY-L] Spelling variants Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 15:57:11 -0600 References: <001f01c674d8$242cc6b0$0e6b6c58@D9SGN12J> In-Reply-To: <001f01c674d8$242cc6b0$0e6b6c58@D9SGN12J> john.whitney -at- tiscali.co.uk wrote: >Hi Ken, > >I don't want to start a long discussion about spelling variants, but reading >your reply to Tim reminded me that there is a list of known variants of the >Whitney name on our website (under /misc/variants) going back to the 11th C. > >Most of these variants exist in the UK*, but quite a few exist (also) in US >records and archives, e.g. Witney, Whitny, Whitne. It might be worth >compiling a (short) list of the specifically US ones and more regularly >checking against them in the hope that they will sometimes prevent the kind >of frustration which you experienced! > >I wondered about the 'Soundex' test, but I see that this has been done. The >WRG site lists over 1,000 results, so maybe not a good approach!! > >[*I think the variations with 'en' in the middle are wholly pre-1630 >English] > >Best regards > >John Whitney >Oxford, UK. > >-----Original Message----- >From: Ken Whitney -at- comcast.net >Sent: 11 May 2006 1:30 am >To: WHITNEY-L -at- rootsweb.com >Subject: Re: [WHITNEY-L] Charles A. Whitney > >Tim, > > Thank you very much for you reply. I now see why I could not find this >family in the 1870 census. I never thought to search for Whitny. It also >explains why Charles A. cannot be found in the 1850 census. He was probably >still in New Brunswick. By searching just Whitny in the 1870 census, I found >a lot of them in Maine. I was unaware that this spelling was this common. I >learn something new every day. Thanks again. > >Ken Whitney >Silver Spring, MD > > > > > Good idea To expand on that, it might be useful to highlight any variations that appear to be the result of errors in notation, as opposed to versions that have been willingly adopted by one or more families. Bill Whitney

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