Over the years while researching my family tree, I have come
across some variants in names especially when people had you things with names
written down. I have found on some web searches where the exact spelling of a
name might bring you closer to a record or you may bypass it all together
without realising it. Sometimes surname searches can bring you a treasure trove
of information. I think the internet has made searching easier for many people
as some websites do give you variants of the names.
One of the best resources I have found in helping to provide
accuracy with names happens to be the New Zealand Births, Deaths and Marriage
records on both microfilm and online. I have actually corrected a few names as
time went on though just simple searches like for example I was given the name
Allan Gerwyn and it was actually the other way round. It was meant to be Gerwyn
Allan or in the national archives looking for a record about Maude Milverton, I
could have called her Maud and found an extra record that was a coroner’s
report. Other family members like Gabolinscy have had several different spellings
that have kept me on my toes including how the name would sound when you are
talking to a person from Germany.
Recently I was asked to look for some family members by a
grandparent and I was happy to do so. It was until I tried searching through
the New Zealand Births Deaths and Marriage website that I came across small
brickwalls that I became stuck for at least an hour. The name I came across in
the marriages section was Lamborth. No other searches anywhere else could find
people with that name. Turns out there were other spelling variants that helped
me including Archways on the New Zealand National Archives website. I ended up
with three different names at different times of their lives. I know they are
correct through official records and the NZSG Kiwi search CD. I ended up with
Lamborth, Lambert, Lambarth, Lambarth. This made recording what I had found to
be interesting indeed. I surprised my grandparent with what I had found so far.
I am going to guess family historians are the ones who will
bear the brunt of changing family names and have to become adept at trying to
figure out especially when you have a name that still gets misspelled on
regular occasions. I have been called Beadel, Beadle and even Beatle so if
names are being badly spelt today, you could imagine what they would be spelled
like well over 100 years ago.
Links / further sources
Anne Bromwell, Tracing Family history in New Zealand,
Godwit, Auckland, 1996.
Paul Blake & Maggie Loughran, Discover your roots,
Infinite Ideas, Oxford, 2006.
Name Change
variations – Tips and Tricks
