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II am trying to resolve an issue about my great, great grandmother’s maiden name. On her son’s death

Dennis Murphy_4
Dennis Murphy_4 ✭
February 25, 2021 edited February 26, 2021 in General Questions

Great, great grandmother: Anna Burns 1841 - 1878, born in Ireland

Great grandmother: Mary C. Murphy 1864 - 1943 born in Brooklyn, NY

Great grand uncle: John Burns: 1866 - 1907 born in Brooklyn, NY

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Answers

  • Dennis J Yancey
    Dennis J Yancey ✭✭✭✭✭
    February 25, 2021

    keep in mind any record can have errors.

    Do you have anything to determine how SHE spelled her name herslf? - and records where she has signed her own signature? or did she have any sibling where is it clear how they spelled their name.

    but also keep in mind - spelling consistency didnt really come to what it is today - until the mid 1900's . Before that spelling variations were quite common and people often Americanized their name when coming to America.

     

    You ask "How to Resolve hte problem"

    I think you need to step back and realized this may not be a preoblem at all - it is merley a manifestation of the human world that different records maight have different spellings - and maybe the person themselves didnt have a consistent spelling.

     

    You can record different name spellings under the Altnernat Names option in FamilySearch. its not always a matter of right and wrong

    many time its just a matter of these documents have this spellings and those documents have that spelling.

     

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  • LegacyUser
    LegacyUser ✭✭✭✭
    February 25, 2021

    Thank you for responding. Unfortunately I have nothing else nor could I find anything on either spelling. I do have to say that I find it difficult to understand how McCullough and McGough could have been interchanged. It’s just another one of those frustrating roadblocks on the convoluted genealogy highway.

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  • Cindy Hecker
    Cindy Hecker ✭✭✭
    February 25, 2021

    The information on the death certificate comes from someone who may or may not know or remember correctly the name. If it is a spouse or child of her daughter, how well did they know grandma to know her maiden name. Marriage records can be helpful for maiden names, either her own or sometimes her children. Generally the person is still living at the time their child is married so likely more accurate. Keep searching and use wild cards such as * or ? to find all the options.

     

    Cindy

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  • Dennis J Yancey
    Dennis J Yancey ✭✭✭✭✭
    February 26, 2021

    it would have been very easy for this name transition

    Keep in mind In Scottish the two are probably pronounced very close to each other

    and here in America they probably would have wanted it simplified any ways

    I have seen name changes much more drastic than that.

     

    check out this link

    https://www.genealogy.com/articles/research/62_donna.html

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  • Paul W
    Paul W ✭✭✭✭✭
    February 26, 2021

    Sadly, it might well be that - as in my case - you will never be able to establish the "original" spelling of the family name. I have a HARROD great grandfather, but earlier generations called themselves (or were recorded as) both HEROD and HARWOOD. So, who knows how the name was "originally" recorded?

     

    As suggested, dialect and mishearing the name can be factors when it comes to how a name has been recorded. You will just have to pick what you think is the "more likely" spelling to use in your main record and add the other name as an alternate one.

     

     

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  • Adrian Bruce1
    Adrian Bruce1 ✭✭✭
    February 26, 2021

    The pain with Irish surnames is that their spelling can be Anglicized back in Ireland resulting in all sorts of variations that, once you layer English & American pronunciations on top of the Anglicized spellings... Well... Chaos.

     

    Having said that, John Grenham's Irish Names facility on https://www.johngrenham.com/surnames/ doesn't suggest any link between McCullough and McGough, so maybe this is a case of misremembering - they knew the rear part was "ough" and that was about it...

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  • Dennis J Yancey
    Dennis J Yancey ✭✭✭✭✭
    February 26, 2021

    one example of an Irish name that has numerous spelling variations among them - the most common probably being KAVANAUGH

    apparently the name was originally Caomhánach 

     

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kavanagh_(surname)

     

    some of the variation is simply how the name was pronounced

     

    but again - surname spelling consistency - is a thing of the 20th century

     

    to assume that there was only a RIGHT and WRONG way to spell the family name across multiple generation - is just an idea that for a large degree - didnt exist in many places and prior centuries.

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  • Dennis J Yancey
    Dennis J Yancey ✭✭✭✭✭
    February 26, 2021

    forgot to include link

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kavanagh_(surname)

     

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