by Carol Baxter
W12 CONTENT
Surnames are a fascinating subject, yet most genealogists fail to explore their ancestral surnames even when they are writing a surname-line family history.
Moreover, they can often be surprisingly difficult to find. When I was linking entries for the same individual as part of my work for the Biographical Database of Australia, I found that most surnames had at least one variant.
This course will build itself as I give lessons on surnames at conferences or via webinars.
One lesson, The Madness of "Mc" Surnames, can be accessed through the A Helpful Miscellany series. This is only available to Annual Members.
Another lesson, Baffling Beginnings, was given as a Legacy Family Tree Webinar in 2021 and will be recorded in 2023 for the WFFH website.
Review comments
The Madness of "Mc" Surnames
This lesson was prepared for a Legacy Family Tree Webinar that aired in July 2022. There are more than 70 review comments on their website which can be viewed here. They include the following:
Surname Slip-ups: Baffling Beginnings
This lesson has not yet been recorded for the Writing Fabulous Family Histories website (look for it in 2023). However, it aired as a Legacy Family History Webinar in a 24-hour webinar marathon in April 2021 (click here for the Legacy Library version), which did not have the comment section enabled. At a later date, a viewer added:
LESSON 1
Coming in 2023
It is a truth universally acknowledgement that if we can't find our ancestor's surname, our chances of tracing that ancestral line are pretty much zip, zero, zilch. But a known surname can also prove elusive because it is recorded in such a way that we cannot locate it. This too can prove genealogically disastrous. As it turns out, most surname 'distortions' follow decipherable patterns. Like a dart thrown at a dartboard, if it misses the bulls-eye, it usually hits one of the outer rings. These 'outer rings' are of two types: sound distortions (e.g. Ahearn/Ohearn) and spelling distortions (e.g. Rourke/Bourke). The surnames that are the most difficult to locate are those that experience distortions in the first letter. If that first letter is not recorded as we expect, the surname will often prove difficult – if not impossible – to locate. There are many reasons why a British or Irish surname might suffer such distortions. These range from the obvious (e.g. Philips/Filips, Carney/Kearney) to the bizarre (e.g. Fonseca/Vauzaker). Yet most distortions are predictable if we know what to look for. And you will know what to look for after listening to this webinar.
Lesson type: Researching
Video duration: ? minutes
Handout: Yes
To be published: 2023
LESSON 2
Not yet prepared.
LESSON 3
If you have already worked out that ‘Mc’ and ‘Mac’ surnames are the most complicated British surnames, you must listen to this webinar. And if you haven’t already worked this out, you must absolutely listen to this webinar.
"Mc" surnames are double the trouble because they can suffer distortions at the beginning, middle and end of the "Mc" prefix as well as at the beginning, middle and end of the rest of the surname, the root word. Sound glides are a particular problem, in which the "k" sound at the end of the "Mc" prefix distorts the first letter of the root word (e.g. McCue/McKew/McHugh/McLachlan/ McGloughlan).
Transcription errors can also produce a non-‘Mc’ surname (e.g. Mackever/Markever) which can prove a trap for the unwary.
This seminar will help keep you sane when you encounter the complexities of these mad Scottish-origin surnames.
Lesson type: Researching
Video duration: 58 minutes
Handout: Yes
Published: 2022
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