What does this mean?

Steve Bumstead said:
By the way the ff is the normal way a capital (upper case) F was written at this time. It really should be transcribed as F not Ff

Steve
Click to expand...
Yes Steve, I am aware of this, but was simply writing it here 'as seen' for the sake of those trying to decipher the entry I was speaking of. Thank you though for bringing it up as it will be helpful to others as they start to look at the older registers!
 
I meant to say another thank you, Diana: thank you for posting the image of the parish register. I can see why that little word caused some difficulty: the middle letter does look just like a 't' there. I can't make out the shape of the last letter but I'm sure from the context this must be an 'als'.

It hardly seems worth abbreviating such a short word as alias, but I suppose it saved a couple of strokes of the pen!

Was your parish register from Essex, by the way? I ask because the various examples of the use of Francis alias Lord, or vice versa, that I found online were all in Essex. They span nearly a century: the earliest was a 1625/6 will of a Jane Lord alias Francis of Thaxted and the latest the appearance of a John Francis alias Lord of Finchingfield, at Chelmsford Assizes in 1713.

Sometimes aliases are just temporary ones used by one individual, but these look more like the kind that are passed on from generation to generation. There's one family in my local (Witney) parish register who can be found as White, Druce, White alias Druce, and Druce alias White. Eventually they settled on plain Druce!
 
Huncamunca said:
I meant to say another thank you, Diana: thank you for posting the image of the parish register. I can see why that little word caused some difficulty: the middle letter does look just like a 't' there. I can't make out the shape of the last letter but I'm sure from the context this must be an 'als'.

It hardly seems worth abbreviating such a short word as alias, but I suppose it saved a couple of strokes of the pen!

Was your parish register from Essex, by the way? I ask because the various examples of the use of Francis alias Lord, or vice versa, that I found online were all in Essex. They span nearly a century: the earliest was a 1625/6 will of a Jane Lord alias Francis of Thaxted and the latest the appearance of a John Francis alias Lord of Finchingfield, at Chelmsford Assizes in 1713.

Sometimes aliases are just temporary ones used by one individual, but these look more like the kind that are passed on from generation to generation. There's one family in my local (Witney) parish register who can be found as White, Druce, White alias Druce, and Druce alias White. Eventually they settled on plain Druce!
Click to expand...

Hi Huncamunca, Again I have to say thank you so very much for sorting that problem out for me, which was another valuable lesson in the world of genealogy, and one that I had never come across before!

Yes the Francis/Lord - Lord/Francis family that gave me such a headache were all Thaxted people, and the transcriptions that I am currently working on are from 1693 to 1756. I have come across 4 (I think) between 1693 and 1711, but have noticed that both the Lords and Francis' folk are using one or the other of the names without the alias bit after 1711. Maybe whatever the one from Finchingfield was appearing at Chelmsford Assizes (in 1713) for,
was bad enough for them to want to disassociate themselves from him!:rolleyes:

It does, however, cross my mind quite frequently, why they changed from one name to the other! I have all sorts of fascinating scenarios going through my mind.;)

I have a similar situation in my own family. Baptised, married and buried in Whittlesey, Cambs under the name Smith Ashworth (ie George Smith Ashworth, John Smith Ashworth, Eliza Smith Ashworth etc.), according to the 1841 and 1851 census has them all listed under the name of Smith. After this they mostly all called themselves ........Smith Ashworth for quite a few generations. I have the Parish Registers and cannot find any entries under Smith Ashworth prior to about 1770, but there were a few Ashworths there and a heap of Smiths! The only scenario I can visualise for this is the birth of an illegitimate child by an Ashworth lass to a father with the name of Smith who either didn't want to marry her, or couldn't marry her. Doubt I will ever know, so it will remain one of my brick walls.:(

If only we could be flies on a wall for a few days each year...imagine how much we might find out! :D
Diana
 
Re: ATE
looked up the good old dictionary and it says "denoting especially persons charged with some duty or function or invested with some dignity, right or special character" - but all the examples are - legate, advocate, curate etc. So I suppose that this is of absolutely no help at all to you
 
Hi Diana,

I'm sorry if I sounded a bit pompous in my earlier post - I didn't mean to be - and thanks for your generous response.

I have a few families with aliases too - one in the Witney area of Oxfordshire used it on and off for over 100 years. It just means "otherwise" in Latin of course, and shows that someone was known by two names - not necessarily that he used both names himself. I find in my bunch that one name (Flexney) was the most common usage, but the alias Hicks was occasional. I have heard many different reasons for an alias - one is where a widow remarried and her children of the first marriage were called by the new husband's name as well as their father's. Another suggestion is that it denotes a legal claim to property, but that sounds odd over such along period. Illegitimacy was, no doubt, another reason

Steve
 
Steve, you most certainly didn't sound at all pompous to me!:) You just took the time to explain something that I was too lazy to do myself, and I very much appreciated it!:D (Anyway, with very dear relations who live in Steeple Bumpstead, and you with the name Bumstead, how could I ever be upset with you?;))

You are quite right in pointing out too, that alias actually means 'otherwise' and when read in that way, it doesn't have a sinister meaning! It is only that in this day and age we tend to think that anyone who uses an 'alias' as being dishonest or up to no good:oops:! Problem with me is that I always want to know the 'ins and outs', 'why's and wherefores'. (one of the reasons I had so much trouble with algebra at school, as I could never see a reason for it....and if truth be told, still can't!o_O
Cheers, Diana
 
We're obviously kindred spirits, Diana - I couldn't see the point of algebra either! Great to hear you've got rellies in Steeple Bumpstead - it is my ancestral village and I made a pilgrimage there a few years ago. A charming place, and I felt sad my forebears left:(
 
Steve Bumstead said:
We're obviously kindred spirits, Diana - I couldn't see the point of algebra either! Great to hear you've got rellies in Steeple Bumpstead - it is my ancestral village and I made a pilgrimage there a few years ago. A charming place, and I felt sad my forebears left:(
Click to expand...

Maybe we are related Steve......I have a line of ancestry (Belsham) who lived for quite a few generations in Hempstead, which is almost right next door, and although I haven't joined all the dots yet, I know that there were also Belshams in Steeple Bumpstead.:) When I have finished the Thaxted transcriptions it is my intention to try and finish the transcriptions which were started some time ago for Hempstead, and then, who knows, should I still have my feet pointing to the floor, I will try and get into the Steeple ones! Diana:D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top