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Archiver > ALT-GENEALOGY > 2000-08 > 0965313783


From: "Richard A. Pence" <>
Subject: Re: on Genealogy Warning
Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2000 10:43:03 -0400


"borray" <> wrote in message
news:foci5.560368$...

> The transaction documents of that jacob before he became a
> member of the city council gives the name borray and after that
> the documents give the name borra.

As I previously noted, this is probably nothing more than "new council, new
clerk, new speller."

IOW, one clerk thought the "correct" spelling was Borray and the next saw no
need to includ the final y.

We often try to ascribe complicated explanations for things that have no
explanation at all - they just happen. This is particularly true of the
spelling of surnames. The spelling of surnames is almost entirely a matter
of chance.

> My information stops at 1609 and before that I cannot find
> anything. I only have the indication that they were sailors and I
> think you are right about the writing stuff but they used the
> name borray or de borrai.

So much depends on the knowledge and experience of the person who created
the records: If the scribe/clerk was familiar with a "de Borrai" family,
then that is what he would normally write. The next fellow might have come
from a different context so has a different concept of the name.

I am not at all familiar with Dutch records, but I suspect one of two things
happened about 1600: Record keeping became more formal, thus creating more
records or (2) the family arrived in the area from somewhere else.

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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