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Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => Kincardineshire => Topic started by: Archivos on Tuesday 20 June 17 15:55 BST (UK)
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There's an interesting blog post on two surnames, Muffert and Bleber, from Kincardineshire which appear in the Aberdeen Infirmary admission registers in the 1750s - neither name is then found post 1855 in the statutory registers.
The blog is by NHS Grampian Archives and is on the University of Aberdeen's Special Collections Centre site at https://specialcollectionslearning.wordpress.com/2017/06/20/whats-in-a-name/
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Black's "Surnames" gives several references to "Blaber", including a William Blaeber in Arbuthnot in 1626. There is one single reference to a "Mufford" - Richard Mufford, esquire to the Earl of Sutherland in 1366. It suggests he was an Englishman, It certainly looks like a placename.
I suppose it's the duty of the next Rootschatter to have a son to call him Muffert Bleber.
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I suppose it's the duty of the next Rootschatter to have a son to call him Muffert Bleber.
I wholeheartedly agree! At least they'd be easy to identify.
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Very interesting indeed.
But I do wonder with regards to 'Muffert' especially; if it is more likely to be a corruption of another name such as Muckhart or Moffat? Given the time period in which these hospital records appear the more variations of names you see across all forms of documents. These variations become less frequent as time goes on and it could look like a name has disappeared when it hasn't, just spelt differently.
I'll give an example of a name in my tree; 'Sheret'. There are so many variations of this name. Shiret is one of these variations.
On SP in the OPR records there are 21 births/baptisms, 4 deaths and 15 marriages of people with the name spelt as 'Shiret'. Under the statutory records there is 1 birth, 1 death and 4 marriages appear. This indicates that the spelling of the name has altered over time and becomes more 'standardised'. Perhaps this could be what's happened here with the 'Mufferts'?
As for the name Bleber, I'm not entirely sure what that could be a variation of if, indeed it is a variation.
Jill