WHAT'S IN A NAME?

I have an original duplicate of my birth certificate, so there is no doubt of my name; it’s spelling, or who my legal parents are.  The same cannot be said of many of our ancestors.  For instance,  Robert Rockwell, or Rockhole, or Rockhold, or Rockholt?  He was born 4 Jul 1800, or was it 1804, or maybe even 1809.  His father was Loyd or maybe Lloyd Rockhold.

Whether in census pages , public records, church records, bible entries, on tombstones or in history books, there seems to be no end to the name/date game.

The upper New England Rockwell’s first aligned themselves with our Robert Rockhould (Virginia), but then DNA evidence proved them not , and now they are not related – sorry, their loss.

Onomastics or onomatology is the study or history of names.  I found reference to the name, “Rockwell”, formally Rockholt, from old English = hroc (rook) + holt (wood), of Buckinghamshire and Somerset.

Some of the early family went with Rockhold, some with Rockholt, even some with Rockwell.  I have found records that clearly relate to the same individual, but with the name being different.  Sometimes this could simply be the spelling by the individual recording the data, such as the census takers, the church deacon, or the town clerk.  Since so many of our early ancestors could not read or write (as indicated on the census records) it is understandable that there could always be some mix-up.

If you are new to this genealogy stuff, and just beginning to look into your family line, a word of caution:  Don’t believe everything you find, and don’t believe just because you can’t find it, it isn’t so.  If you’re searching, try alternate spellings:  William can be Wm, or Will, or Willy, or Willie, sometimes it’s simply Bill or Billy.  Elizabeth is also Eliza, Liza, Lizzy, El and Liz.  Don’t get hung up on the spelling.

Dates are yet another problem.  Very early dates (colonial period) are often recorded on the old calendar and therefore could be off a couple years from today’s calendar.  Ages listed on census page entries are often the best guess of who ever provided the data to the census taker, and, in some cases, it’s simply a matter of an individual not wanting to reveal his/her real age.

Handwritten records sometimes are just unclear, is that a 4 or is it a 9 that the top is simply not closed up?  Is that a U or a V?  Sometimes it’s a matter of who’s guess is best.  I even found one individual recorded in two census pages.  On one page she is in the family home, in the other, four days later, she is in the home of her sister and brother-in-law, along with her 1/12 year old nephew.

Happy hunting!