Genealogy Forum UK

in short searching my tree my great farther,spell his name o'neil (1 L )
my grand farher and his siblings-and to date is spelt with (2 L ).
also came across with this o'niell (i before the E ) connfused yet, its all variation of the surname my great grand farther used.
he was born in ireland a.b.t. 1835 and came to england date unknown and married local records show him as o'neil
but since its been o'neill (2L )
does any one think it purley a spelling mistake ..
or could it be that its been religious thing him catholic and prod. i can obtian there marriage cert no records ofthe church in which they married.
any thouhts any one.
thank you in advance

Boutland your great grandfather proberly couldn't write or spell his own name so it was up to the person writing down his surname to decipher how it was spelt this gets more confusing where strong accents occur hence the different spelling of his surname. hope this helps. pete

Agree with Peter!
Spellings do differ thats quite common
Transcribed wrongly too.
Jo

peterd wrote:Boutland your great grandfather proberly couldn't write or spell his own name so it was up to the person writing down his surname to decipher how it was spelt this gets more confusing where strong accents occur hence the different spelling of his surname. hope this helps. pete

thanks pete
ithink that the most likely , having a strong local accent i often have pepole asking me to repeat my self.
and also he very well could have been illterate.

even though he was tailor and his own shop in newcastle city centre

i have had similar problems too , some of my ancestors came to england from ireland were called Devereaux and i have 3 death certificates , husband , wife and son , were devereaux is spelt 3 different ways , devereaux , deveraux and devereux