How Names change

[Amyou]

The family name Youers from High Wycombe Buckinghamshire appears to have changed from Yours to Youers with Thomas Yours who married Ellen Turner in 1861. He seems to have started to use Youers soon after his marriage and his son William, born 1861 was listed as Youers. Do you think it was because he was illiterate and just said his name? I'm trying to work out if James and Ann Yours were Thomas' parents. They were in the 1841 census.

[avm228]

Hello and a warm welcome to Rootschat

It could well be that the spelling of the name was inadvertently changed because William was illiterate and any writing was done by others on a phonetic basis.  Another possible explanation is that he decided to change the spelling in order to distinguish him from somebody else with the same name - this sometimes happened where extended families lived close together and drew from a small pool of given names, and so cousins often had the same name as one another.

Names were much more fluid in the 19th century than they are now.  In my family Newland gradually turned into Newlyn, Newsome into Newsham and Markham into Markin (and back!).  In all these cases I'm sure it was a lack of literacy rather than a deliberate decision to change the name.  Actually I find it interesting as a clue to how they pronounced their names.

Anna 

[Ecneps]

Hi Amyou,

Lots of name changes in my family, and I also put it down to illiteracy and local pronunciation, eg. Abbs changed to Ebbs, Civil changed to Sivel, Sivil, Sivill, Sivills, Seville and so on.  Another family I'm researching went from McKeeny to just Keeny and back again.....

Barbara

[Ecneps]

I'm trying to work out if James and Ann Yours were Thomas' parents. They were in the 1841 census.

Have you got Thomas and Ellen's marriage cert, giving his age and father's name and occupation?  Then Thomas' birth cert should clinch the parents' names

Barbara

[tazzie]

  As well I have found the name for another Rootschatter who is researching the names mis-spelt as Youens...

 1851 High Wycombe ho107/1719 f118 sch0039

St Mary's St.

 James Yours hd m m 40 Tetsworth Shoemaker
 Ann               wi f m 40 Thame
 George          so m u 19 Wycombe chairseat maker
 James            so m u 16 Wycombe chair caner
 Thomas         so m u 15 Wycombe chairtop caner
 Henry Hearne lo m u 19 Wooburn chairtop maker
 Francis Hearne lo m u 16 Wooburn french polisher.

  looks like the boys were running their own workshop!

           Tazzie

[behindthefrogs]

At this time a large proportion of the population of High Wycombe was employed in chair making and so one would expect to find all of the members of a family employed in the industry.

David

[Amyou]

Thank you all for your help on name changes. I hadn't thought about people changing names to distinguish themselves from cousins etc. I'm sure pronunciation had a great deal to do with name changes as well.

Thank you again

Ann