“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” (Romeo and Juliet – Act 2, Scene 2) An admirable sentiment to be expressed in a love story. Not exactly much help to a genealogist.
I have been looking at just a few of the variations in spelling that have complicated my research. Many websites, but not all, can cope with minor variations in spelling. They use the “soundex” algorithm. This uses phonetics to broaden searches. The algorithm dates back to 1918, but has found many applications in the age of the internet. There are still shortcomings, as there are with all algorithms.
Most websites will pick up both ‘Stanley’ and ‘Stanly’. Crucially for my purposes, the National Archives for Ireland website does not. It requires me to look for both variations on the 1901 and 1911 census returns. In 1911, in Roscommon, there are seven people with the Stanly name living in the townland of Ballinlough. There are only eight across the entire county. Searching for Stanley throws up ten people. Six live in Island Lower. Three live in Emlaghyroyin. Small numbers of people in a small part of the County.
I have been trying to identify a possible connection with a Patrick McHugh. (See “Kelly and McHugh in America“, and other posts tagged McHugh) He was born in 1825 somewhere in Ireland. As the ripples spread outwards, so do the variations in spelling. The names McCue, McEw and McCune all appear on official records. A mother’s maiden name is even shown as Hughes on one birth record. No algorithm is going to pick that up.
I have looked at lodgers and neighbours because some of these might also be relatives. I came across a widow called Mary Cannan, age 67, in the 1901 census in Dewsbury. (See “Mary Canaan“) As I tried to track her back in time, I found references to Cannon, Connon and Canning. It is not clear which one is correct. Perhaps the answer is ‘none’. Correct in this context means the particular spelling that was adopted by the greatest number of relatives for the longest time. Until literacy levels improved, spellings were ‘fluid’. There are families with the name Gannon in Roscommon. Perhaps they are connected. More recently I have come across a possible Shannon connection. Can I rule these out? Time might tell.
I have already covered the difficulties in tracking Uriah Senior and his wife Catherine (or Kate) Stanley. (See “Kate Stanley“) Fortunately, in terms of enabling me to untangle the mystery, there were other points of cross reference. When the evidence is sketchy, the scope for error increases.
In genealogical terms, the rose might still smell as sweet, but we wouldn’t necessarily find it!