Friday 16 June 2006

Eureka or is it Yureeekah :O)

Today with my husband's help I've found records of a family member whose unusual first name was all I knew of her.  My mother once wrote to me and mentioned the Christian name Beder but today I've found her listed variously as Beder, Beeder and Beada.  Born in 1851 and married in 1871 she was my Granny's Granny which is only another way of saying that she was my Great Great Grandmother, but somehow the first way sounds more real to me.  For my grandchildren she was one of their Great Great Great Great Grandmothers and doesn't that sound as if she lived almost before the Flood rather than 150 years ago!
Wouldn't you have thought that with a first name like that finding her would have been a doddle, but then searching these records rarely produces recognisable results the first time because of the widespread laissez faire attitudes towards spelling, even within officialdom - which goes to show that people who try to make out that folks in those days were better educated are talking out of what would have been known as their RCs 
 
Imagine how long it took me to find the multi mispelt Fiensia on my Dad's side of the family - and they were travelling people too and much given to calling their children X on official documents  or, for an occasional change, the odd lad would be named 'Boy'.  Helpful to posterity NOT <gg>

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thats interesting I know the Irish have the christian name Breda ,which is similar !Fiensia,is lovely travelers A? there are some who say centurys ago we were gypsys too ,cross my palm with silver etc lol ,........Jan xx   http://journals.aol.co.uk/jeadie05/Serendipity/

Anonymous said...

so you 've not always been posh then ;))))