Genealogy Forum UK

I am new to the BCC and probably don't know what I am looking at, but looking over the name index I was wondering why the name WHILE was referred to as WYLE. My 2nd great grandfather was Henry While b. 1822 in Netherton and all his children were born in Netherton, Dudley, Worcestershire, England. Some of my ancestors seem to be in the WYLE list. Interesting!!
Bob

I've done the same in my tree. When you start going back in the various records, you'll find that surnames are spelt in different ways, even for the same person, probably due to people being illiterate, they didn't know themselves how it should be spelt. In my tree from about 1870/80 spellings seem to be more standardised. I have chosen the modern spelling for each name, but it's a personal choice as to whether you keep the original spelling or use one of the alternatives!

Alternate spellings are the bane of Genealogists.

Most surnames end up getting Anglicised because the people were illiterate and the clerks phonetically spelt anything new to them.

My GG Grandsmother, Selina Barklam was born in Tipton. I have followed her family back to the 1700's in Kingswinford and Shropshire and the name is spelled Bartlam, Bartlom, Barklem ... I have found though that all of the family located in Tipton used Barklam, probably because of the local dialect. I have found a baptism of a child in Kingswinford as Bartlam and then his marriage as Barklam. The census records use both over different years. I have researched the name thoroughly over the last ten years and I now am pretty sure that anyone with the Barklam spelling is related to me. For access of searching in my Rootsmagic programme and on my Tribal Pages tree I have used the Barklam spelling, but made reference in the notes for people who have the name spelled differently in Baptisms, marriages, buriels and census.

bobleathers wrote:I am new to the BCC and probably don't know what I am looking at, but looking over the name index I was wondering why the name WHILE was referred to as WYLE. My 2nd great grandfather was Henry While b. 1822 in Netherton and all his children were born in Netherton, Dudley, Worcestershire, England. Some of my ancestors seem to be in the WYLE list. Interesting!!
Bob

Hi Bob the BCC or Black Country Connections tree is a tree that I
own separate from this forum but work out of this forum to bounce ideas to each other
and queries, as you can't do it on the tree, you need a forum to run with posts.

I have allowed some "friends" to join my tree and add their lines, but have
had to unfortunately slow that right down as not much else is getting done
So closed it to new "friends" for the moment, but all names are still viewable.

We keep to one variant of names ie Tibbetts not Tibbutts etc etc to aid searching on the site.

While / Wyle
Whale /Weal etc

are those names that vary
the problem is if we are not careful we end up with
John While ....spelt a multitude of ways and appearing a number of times with his line on the BCC tree.
So we use Wyle ...I think that was the one we had most of at that time.

Where a name varies ie we use Wyle but the ancestor is While on regis docs, we can add a note in notes
"spelt while but changed on this site to Wyle to aid searching"

that way it can be picked up by going to advanced search.

I have to say I prefer While but it seemed to be Wyle we had more of.
And I aint got time to go thru 80 ancestors to see if they are actually While now more than Wyle.

Thank you all- great information and totally understandable.
I enjoy this site! I have never been to the UK, but this site is providing me tons of insight and information about the people and geographical area my ancestors came from. Try to picture coal miners and their families from The Black Country arriving in southern Wyoming in 1880-1885, stepping off a horse, wagon or train into the new world of the wild west, complete with Indians, cowboys and outlaws. I know and understand life in the Wild West, but life in Netherton or West Bromwich, England in 1880-1885 is a stretch for me. I'm anxious to learn all I can.
Thanks,
Bob

bobleathers wrote:Thank you all- great information and totally understandable.
I enjoy this site! I have never been to the UK, but this site is providing me tons of insight and information about the people and geographical area my ancestors came from. Try to picture coal miners and their families from The Black Country arriving in southern Wyoming in 1880-1885, stepping off a horse, wagon or train into the new world of the wild west, complete with Indians, cowboys and outlaws. I know and understand life in the Wild West, but life in Netherton or West Bromwich, England in 1880-1885 is a stretch for me. I'm anxious to learn all I can.
Thanks,
Bob

It múst have been a shock for them, they may never have seen the ocean before travelling to the US, not to mention possible sea sickness! And then a long trip over continental America.

bobleathers wrote:Thank you all- great information and totally understandable.
I enjoy this site! I have never been to the UK, but this site is providing me tons of insight and information about the people and geographical area my ancestors came from. Try to picture coal miners and their families from The Black Country arriving in southern Wyoming in 1880-1885, stepping off a horse, wagon or train into the new world of the wild west, complete with Indians, cowboys and outlaws. I know and understand life in the Wild West, but life in Netherton or West Bromwich, England in 1880-1885 is a stretch for me. I'm anxious to learn all I can.
Thanks,
Bob

If we can help just ask.

bobleathers wrote:Try to picture coal miners and their families from The Black Country arriving in southern Wyoming in 1880-1885, stepping off a horse, wagon or train into the new world of the wild west, complete with Indians, cowboys and outlaws. I know and understand life in the Wild West, but life in Netherton or West Bromwich, England in 1880-1885 is a stretch for me. I'm anxious to learn all I can.
Thanks,
Bob

Some of it's difficult enough for us too!
I mean, my gr gr grandmother had 13 kids according to the 1911 census (I've only found 9, suspect the others didn't live very long). On that census it tells me that the house they'd raised most of those children in had 4 rooms - not including pantry and landing - so a typical two up two down terraced house! I just can't imagine that - maybe the kids slept in the two rooms upstairs and the parents downstairs. Not to mention the lack of toilet and washing facilities!
I know as well that she was a midwife and nurse (it's only on the 1911 census, never mentioned before she was widowed, but the family says she had years of experience). She's the informer on a lot of the family death certificates and from those and other documents I know she was probably illiterate, and that around the time of the 1911 census you had to be a certified midwife, or you couldn't practice as one or even call yourself a midwife - if you did you could be sent to prison!
Not all men and no women could vote, probably a lot of women worked too - even though their proffessions are not usually mentioned on the census. It makes my mind boggle just to think of what they put up with! It certainly makes me appreciate what I have, and makes me wonder how much of me comes from my ancestors!

Thanks for the reply snoopysue. You said it well. The search isn't easy, but it sure is interesting! If I have any more questions I will be sure to post them. If I can be any assistance please let me know. I have information on the WHILE family from Netherton/Dudley and the HADLEY family from West Bromwich.
Bob

Which Hadleys from West Brom?

I think about 99% of the English population is related to a West Brom Hadley

Thats what it seems like in my tree anyway....

I think the biggest shock in Wyoming would have been the Americans trying to understand a Black Country accent.

I have one lot who left England as Onions and ended up being Anians in the USA because they got sick and tired of having to correct the spelling whenever somebody tried to interpret their accent.

MarkCDodd wrote:Which Hadleys from West Brom?

I think about 99% of the English population is related to a West Brom Hadley

I'm not!
Lots of other West Bromwich people though!

hi there!! Which While / Wyle's are you linked to?
I am linked to Sarah Wyle from Tippity Green, Rowley Regis who married Edward Blakeway in 1883.
Her father was william Wyle.
Sarah was my great Grandmother!

Turns out bobleathers is a 4th cousin with my 3rd Great Grandparents, Henry Hadley and Hannah Purcell being our common relatives.

Now I will have to fill in that part of the tree. I gave the Hadleys a bit of a rest as they are hard to untangle from each other

Going to archive this thread now

Bob if you want to start a new thread on a family person just put
the subject in and then your query and post.
We will do our best to help you.

When we meet up we can have a chat about the BCC tree
and perhaps you adding your lines and name to the tree.

Just a note to everyone involved with the BCC tree
please don't add others members names in for them they have to add their own
under a particular ancestor
eg
Connects to:-<br>
Jan<br>

when and if they join. so even if you know they connect
let them add their own name pls