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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 2003-02 > 1046043970


From: "Richard Smith" <>
Subject: Re: Is Polly another name for...........
Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 17:50:55 -0800
References: <b35d2p$a6s$1@sparta.btinternet.com> <YWbATrBONsV+EwKU@varneys.demon.co.uk> <b37e79$5pr$1@news7.svr.pol.co.uk> <I7VU4EB6WBW+EwiC@varneys.demon.co.uk> <b3bg5d$7iu$1@newsg3.svr.pol.co.uk>


Chris,

This may be slightly off your topic, but since I've been puzzled for years
by it, I'll add it:

First and second generation Pennsylvania women from Swiss and German
Palatine families in which little, if any, English was spoken, called
daughters, baptised as Anna Maria, 'Polly.' I've never seen an example of
'Molly,' but almost always Anna Maria was 'Polly.' I had always thought
this to be an English or Scots-Irish practice. My notes have speculation
that it was a Scots-Irish practice picked up by the German speakers as they
settled among, and then replaced, the Scots-Irish in southeastern and
central Pennsylvania.

Just a thought. It might be irrelevant.

Richard


----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Phillips" <>
To: <>
Sent: Sunday, February 23, 2003 1:58 PM
Subject: Re: Is Polly another name for...........


> I wrote:
> > >Hardly scientific, I realise, but on those figures I remain sceptical
> that
> > >Polly is "usually Mary Ann".
>
> Eve McLaughlin wrote:
> > go ahead, be wrong, ot os makes you happy. Presumabl;y you have picked
> > up other people's inaccuracies
>
>
> I'm afraid you miss the point. I said I was sceptical, but if anyone can
> present any proper evidence that "Polly is usually Mary Ann", I'll be
quite
> happy to listen. So far there's just been assertion, and some anecdotal
> stuff relating to individual families. On that basis you say that
> "presumably" the tens of thousands of examples on the Internet are all
> wrong.
>
> I think it's clear enough that both Molly and Polly were nicknames for
Mary
> long before women were called "Mary Ann". So if "Polly is usually Mary
Ann",
> that presupposes that for some reason the population shifted its
unofficial
> nicknaming practice at some point. Somehow, one of the previously
> interchangeable nicknames for Mary gravitated towards Mary, and the other
> towards Mary Ann....
>
> I presume this is alleged to have happened in the 19th century, as "Mary
> Ann" would have been uncommon earlier than that. Moreover, did it happen,
> uncannily, on both sides of the Atlantic at the same time, by some subtle
> process of sympathy?
>
> Apart from the Google stats, this process of spontaneously mutating
> nicknames just sounds very implausible to me.
>
> But as I said before, if any proper evidence can be presented, I'm all
ears.
> Essentially, it's a matter of evidence, isn't it? Genealogists should
always
> be able to present evidence for their assertions, not just say "go ahead,
be
> wrong" if anyone disagrees.
>
> Chris Phillips
>
>
>
>
>
> ==== GENBRIT Mailing List ====
> GenUKI search engine : http://www.genuki.org.uk/search.html
> Use it to search for mentions on genUKI of, say, a place or
> a name of interest.
>

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