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Archiver > ALT-GENEALOGY > 2000-08 > 0965279450


From: "Richard A. Pence" <>
Subject: Re: on Genealogy Warning
Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2000 01:10:50 -0400


"borray" <> wrote in message
news:ow1i5.551827$...

[Bob Heiling:]

> > There's no asurance that we are all related as
> > surnames are often polygenetic and have multiple origins.
>
> Do yo know anything how often names are polygenectic and is
> that in case of every name. I will tell you why I ask that.
> I found an old formal document from the city council in holland
> that proved the name change from borray to borra in 1613.

> I am in a direct line related to that "gang".

> But now on the net I also found that name in south-america and
> Israel.

> Now I am looking for relation between those names and for that
> reason my question about polygenetic.

I'm not sure what you fellows mean by "polygenetic" <g>, but when it comes
to surnames there is but one rule: How a name is spelled is *not* an
indicator of relationship: Just as those who spell their names the same may
not be related, those who spell it differently might well be.

The vagaries of surname spellings is reflective of the high rates of
illiteracy and lack of spelling conventions. In the U.S., it was not until
the mid-1800s that spelling inconsistencies began to disappear; this
probably took place earlier in other countries and other languages.

>From the 1600s to the middle of the 19th century it is not uncommon at all
to find a surname spelled two, three or even FOUR different ways in the SAME
DOCUMENT! So, how a family eventually spelled its surname was largely a
matter of chance rather than intent. I have records of a family where the
name was usually spelled BENTZ for the great grandfather, PENCE, for the
grandfather, PENTZ for the father and PENCE again for the son - with each
family in each generation apparently randomly electing to use one (or more)
of these options.

If you look in the indexes for various sets of records in Shenandoah County,
Virginia, you will not find a single person named BENTZ listed. Yet if you
look in the marriage, deed, probate and other court records you will find
hundreds of men names Bentz named in these documents. Why aren't they in the
indexes? Because the English-speaking and writing clerks spelled this
surname as they heard the German immigrants say it and thus all the records
sighed by various menbers of the BENTZ (BENNS, BENS, BENZ, PENTZ, PENS,
etc.) are routinely labeled as documents relating to the name PENCE.

A fellow walked into my office one day in Washington, DC, and handed me his
card showing his name to be PENCH. Turned out he was actually a PENCE: His
great grandfather was born into a family of PENCEs in Kentucky and was
orphaned at an early age. He eventually was sent to live with a maternal
aunt in Oklahoma and his adoptive family took a stab at his surname and the
result was PENCH.

Pieter, I am wondering what you mean when you say, "I found an old formal
document from the city council in holland that proved the name change from
Borray to Borra in 1613."

Is this a formal document which grants a man named Borra official permission
to change the spelling of his name from Borra to Borray? If so, that would
be highly unusual in a time when surnames were still in the process of being
adopted in many societies and cultures and there certainly was no
consistency in the spelling, particularly of surnames.

Or is this a document in which the name just happens to be spelled both
ways - which would be pretty much normal for the time?

Andrew Jackson, the frontiersman who was president of the U.S. from
1829-1837 was fond of saying that he never trusted a man who could only
spell a word one way. Apparently, early scribes and clerks were striving for
trustworthiness when they were recording surnames. <g>

And this final thought for those who think their surname is spelled "the
right way": How a family name is spelled today is often the result of a
spur-of-the moment decision made by a man who couldn't read or write, let
alone spell!

Regards,
Richard A. Pence, 3211 Adams Ct, Fairfax, VA 22030
Voice 703-591-4243 Fax 703-385-0971
Pence Family History <http://www.pipeline.com/~richardpence/&g

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