Alternate spellings of names, especially surnames are a pet peave of mine. Rick, I agree with you a 100 percent. In my genealogy program database, I spell surnames as they were spelled during the persons lifetime, and more specifically at the time of the person's death. When requesting a record of a long dead ancestor from one of the Azorean Archives (Horta in my case), it absolutely infuriates me when they send an abstract and use the modern spelling of the surname, when the original record (which I have seen) has the original spelling. I feel like suing them for falsifying documents!!!!!!
Example:My father's last name was spelled "Vasconcellos" when he immigrated to this country in 1909 according to the record on the ships's list on the Ellis Island web site. Somewhere along the line, the spelling got "updated" to "Vasconcelos" which is the modern spelling.* My theory: *When he went back to Flores to marry my mother in 1928, he was not yet a US citizen, so he had to renew his Portuguese passport. The Portuguese beaurocrat who processed his passport renewal application must have decided to "correct" the spelling of my father's last name to the modern spelling. I have first and second cousins in both New Bedford and here in California who still spell it the old way (Vasconcellos) because their ancestors immigrated before 1910 and became citizens of the US. (From what I understand, 1910 is about the time double letters were eliminated from the Portuguese language. If anyone, knows the full story and true date, I would be interested in learning it.) A half-brother of my father of my father immigrated to New Bedford in the late 1890's and all his decendants spell the name Vasconcellos. Another example in my family is Corvello/Corvelo My mother's second cousin, Captain Antonio Caetano Corvello immigrated to New Bedford, Mass in the 1890's where he became a whaling Captain. I have cousins who still live on Flores who spell the name Corvelo. I rest my case. This little known fact can be an aid in dating the arrival of your ancestors in the US. Vasconcellos/Vasconcelos, Corvello/Corvelo, Mello/Melo, et infinitum. Goes for first names too: Anna/Ana for one. My mother's maiden name was Anna de Freitas Corvello after she married my father her name became Ana Freitas Vasconcelos. I think I've exhausted that subject. Regards, John Vasconcelos On Sun, Jun 20, 2010 at 12:21 PM, <rfrancispimen...@comcast.net> wrote: > Hi Jesse, > > It would depend on what you want to do with the data base. If I were > doing a tree to show my family then I use actual names as they were > spelled at the time. If I were doing a searchable data base (which I am) > then I standardize spelling with some exceptions. A good example is the > one you give I treat Helena and Elena separately but others like Mello > and Melo are all spelled Mello. > > Rick > > Richard Francis Pimentel > Epping, New Hampshire, USA > Researching Bretanha, Ribeirinha, Ribeira Grande, Achade Grande, and > Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel, Acores > > > -----Original Message----- > From: azores@googlegroups.com [mailto:azo...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf > Of Jesse Pacheco > Sent: Sunday, June 20, 2010 3:04 PM > To: Azores Genealogy > Subject: [AZORES-Genealogy] Name Spelling & Standardization > > Hi > > I was wondering if there was a general consensus on what to do with > names with variations/different spellings (this is almost all of them!). > > For example, I have a Helena in my tree and I also have an Elena. I know > > these are technically the "same" name but the spellings have been > different. Do these spellings reflect the priest who wrote the records > or how the people in question actually wanted their name spelled? If it > is all based on the priest I will start adopting standardized spellings > for the sake of organization. Just looking for some opinions/information > > on this! Thanks! > > -- > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > azores+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<azores%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com>. > Follow the confirmation directions > when they arrive. > For more options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail > (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the > right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my > membership." > > -- > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > azores+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<azores%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com>. > Follow the confirmation directions when they arrive. > For more options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail > (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the > right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my > membership." > -- To unsubscribe from this group, send email to azores+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. Follow the confirmation directions when they arrive. For more options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership."
