ATWOOD-L Archives

Archiver > ATWOOD > 1999-01 > 0915639859


From: Sandi Goetze <>
Subject: Re: [ATWOOD-L] [Fwd: Archaic Name Query]
Date: Wed, 06 Jan 1999 08:24:19 -0800


Bill Attwood wrote:
>
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> Dear Sandi and the Atwood list,
> This explanation from D. Spencer Hines to the SCKY list might help to
> clarify some thoughts on early spelling. He has a later posting which I
> will send in a few minutes.
>
> Bill Attwood
> Tucson, Arizona

Hi Bill!

> And some Attwood's are not as closed minded as you might think.

I never thought of that as being part of what I was commenting to.
I was just mentioning that name changes were a very common occurrence.

> We are often inclined to think of them as illiterate or careless, when
> that may be far, far from the truth.

Reading and posting wills and estates has given me exposure to a wide
variety of spelling with Old English. Some of the ancestors could not
write. Others spelled differently and inconsistently to make you laugh.
And others spelled better than I do, with an occasional "at" instead of
the persons regular "att". To give you an example of how well some
spelled, let me quote some words from the last estate I did.

"Administration, division of the estate between the children, widow,
administratrix, comprising, inventory, maintenance, received as portions,
request, accordingly apportioned, meadow in ye higglety pigleyes."

The Haverhill, Essex, MA, and Nantucket Island Indian Deeds, were
written by one of the men among them. In Haverhill, my xggranduncle,
Thomas DAVIS could not sign his name. (That was not uncommon.)
He left his mark. OTOH, Tristram Coffin Sr. was able to sign his
name, "Tristram Coffyn." I have no idea why that spelling wasn't
handed down instead of "coffin". Some had advantages and education
beyond the others.

We make the jokes about spelling changes. But, if all these Europeans
are to attempt to learn English, egad. Can you imagine being Spanish,
Portuguese, and Italian, with those romantic languages, where each
letter or letters are always to be pronounced one way, an "a" is 'ah";
"e" is "eh", and "i" is pronounced "e". Each letter has it's sound.

Any one that has to pronounce "kat" for "cat", but is expected to
know that he should write "cival servants", for what sounds like
"kival servants" with no rhyme or reason to it.

Why is a word the is more easily spelled "thru" spelled "through",
esp. if "rough' is spelled "ruff" This is one of a few I've heard
on this. It would definitely seem that we should correct the English
language, to a reasonable degree, before it starts sounding like
German.

So, while I'd hate to have to learn English spelling a new way. For
the sake of greater numbers learning English and unified by a common
language. I'd like to see it be done on certain words.

> Noah Webster [1758-1843] the famous lexicographer, did not publish his
> first speller, the "American Spelling Book" until 1783. It was the
> famous "Blue-Backed Speller" of the first decades of the fledging
> United States.

These wills and estates are 16th/17th century documents. And having
them does help determine a persons or their friends spelling ability
and education. Some are from highly educated, some couldn't write,
others had the more flexible free-handed phonetically spelled. I
have nothing wrong with teachin phonetic spelling. That's how I
taugh my two children to read scores of books before they entered
preschool. But, in the long run, if they are to use whatever is
politically correct. The basics is the phonics, with them misc.
thrown in later.

> His great and final work was his "American Dictionary of the English
> Language" published in 1828.
>
> Webster was graduated from Yale College in 1778, just five years after
> Nathan Hale [1755-1776]. He joined the bar in 1781 and writing the
> dictionaries was an avocation. He did much of the writing at his home
> in New Haven, Connecticut [N.B. I've often wondered if our New Haven,
> Kentucky has any links with it. Does anyone know?] Noah Webster's
> house stood on Grove Street, not far from where Noah himself is buried
> in Grove Street Cemetery, where Silliman College of Yale University,
> stands today. There is a historical marker and I usually nod my head
> in respect whenever I pass it.
>
> English teachers had to be trained in the "new-fangled standardized
> spelling." It was mainly an East Coast phenomenon in the beginning.
> Ignorant state legislators [N.B. Little has changed with respect to
> that today, in some states.] would not spend taxpayers' funds for the
> spellers as a "wasteful and unnecessary public expense."
>
> It took a long time for the "new-fangled Eastern spelling" drummed up
> by that "elitist Federalist Yankee" from Yale to penetrate to the

I must beg out here, as the minute I look at the screen, I
immediately fall asleep. So, if I missed anthing, I apologise.
---
Kind Regards,
Sandi Goetze
Sponsor of Rootsweb,
Pine Mtn. Club, CA
Home to Rootsweb, photos at:
<http://www.frazmtn.com/~verhoeff/photo2.htm>;
,,,
(o¨o))
( v ))
|-----oOOo---oOOo-----------perhaps ATWOOD,-------------------------|
|*BARNARD*BIDFIELD*BROCKLEBANK*COFFIN*COFFLEY*COPP*DAVIS*DOLE*EATON*|
|*GRAFTON*GREENLEAF*HASTINGS*JAQUES*JOHNSON*KNIGHT*LITTLE*MITCHELL* |
|*MOORE*MOORE*PEASLEY*PLUMMER*POORE*ROGERS*ROLFE*SANDERS*STEVENS* |
|*TEWKSBURY*THAYER*----------Ancestors of----Essex County, MASS. |
|---.oooO-----------------------------------------------------------|
( ) H I
R \ ( C Oooo. N Sandi [Goetze = 'gets']
E \_) R ( ) G
S A ) / <>
E (_/

"Genealogy = Where you confuse the dead and irritate the living."

"Genealogists do not die, they just lose their census."

"Feritility is hereditary. If your parents didn't have children,
neither will you."

Westward Pioneers:
*Sarah Jane ATWOOD*-----OH>IL>IN

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