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In the prompt for this week’s #52Ancestors challenge we’re advised “not to get hung up on a spelling”. Amy Johnson Crow comments that, “It’s amazing how many ways a name can be spelled.” She asks, “Who is an ancestor who might have had trouble with people mangling their name?”

Of the four main names I’m researching (Bennett, Bottomley, Sanderson, Titterington) two have a variety of different spellings.

I’ve learnt through time to think about how a name might sound and therefore have been recorded. I’ve also discovered the advantages of having an idea of who else may have been living at an address on census night – if you can’t find the person you’re actually interested in, you might find another member of the family. For example, my great uncle was Frank Titterington. I really struggled to find him on the 1921 census, until I searched for my grandmother (I have no idea why I didn’t do that first!) and discovered that Frank’s name had been mis-transcribed (now corrected).

The surname Titterington has many different spellings, and is the subject of a one name study, which lists five alternative spellings. The unusual nature of the name can be helpful, especially knowing the relatively small area in which the family lived three or four generations ago and the other areas which hosted different branches of Titteringtons. It was also interesting to meet lots of other Titteringtons at the 2006 Titterington Trail which happened to be focused on the area (Waddington/West Bradford) in which my Titterington family used to live.

Bennett apparently has its origins in Benedict. According to the Dictionary of American Family Names (2013, Oxford University Press), it may also have been “derived from the Old French form Beneit, Benoit, which was common among the Normans” (as quoted on Ancestry). My Bennett ancestors came from Cornwall – the name has changed over the years from Bennetts to Bennett (occasionally losing or gaining a ‘t’). Being aware of different spellings is helpful, but can also lead to incorrect assumptions – especially when you have not particularly unusual family names running through the generations (Thomas or Tom is a common one in my case). I was surprised to find that there is also a one-name study for Bennett (with five other variations in spelling listed). I’ve found the Guild of One-Name Studies site a useful resource – there are some very knowledgeable people, and if you are wondering about what seems an unusual surname you can sometimes find clues (eg it lists alternate spellings of another surname, Coad, which I am unlikely to have considered).

Bottomley is apparently a “habitational name from a place in West Yorkshire named Bottomley, from Old English botm ‘broad valley’ + leah ‘woodland clearing’ (OUP, as quoted on Ancestry). Knowing the area, that description certainly fits. The Forebears site suggests the place may also have been known as Bothamley, although it’s been rare for me to see any alternate spellings of the surname.

One mystery I’m hoping to help a friend crack (although with little luck so far) is to track down the birth certificate of her great grandmother, Amelia. She may have been born in North Wales or in the north east – we know her parents migrated from Holywell to Trimdon, near Durham, at some point in the 1860s (or very early 1870s). She is usually listed as being born in the north east, but occasionally Wales is listed – perhaps she was very young when the family moved north. Depending on which document you look at, Amelia could have been born anywhere between 1862 and 1870 – not a massive difference in some ways, but it has made it hard to pin her down. We’ve followed her through most censuses, with many a variation on how her first name is spelt. Presumably it was deemed unusual and, combined with what may have been an unfamiliar Welsh accent in the north east, recorded in different ways, Ammelier being my favourite.