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Author Topic: Jean or Jane Richard  (Read 437 times)

Offline danieloks2ndaccount

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Jean or Jane Richard
« on: Saturday 04 April 20 23:54 BST (UK) »
Jean Richard is a relative of mine who was born 27/06/1869 and died 09/04/1958 88, now what I am confused with is on her grave she is Jane but on her scotlands people birth she is Jean, on ancestry in the 1881 and 1871 census she is Jean but in 1891 and 1901 she is Jane. So I am expecting she changed her name in between 1881 and 1891.
Also if it helps she married James Hunter Samson and she is down as Jeanie in 1895 Auchinleck.

Online CaroleW

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Re: Jean or Jane Richard
« Reply #1 on: Sunday 05 April 20 00:07 BST (UK) »
In Scotland & also in England - Jean & Jane are interchangeable.  My father had a sister born as Jane in Liverpool who was known throughout her life as Jean.  Even her headstone shows her as
Jane  (Jean) Green
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Carlin (Ireland & Liverpool) Doughty & Wright (Liverpool) Dick & Park (Scotland & Liverpool)

Offline Forfarian

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Re: Jean or Jane Richard
« Reply #2 on: Sunday 05 April 20 10:06 BST (UK) »
As CaroleW says, this is very common indeed.

There are several pairs or groups of names which are used interchangeably, Jane/Jean/Jeanie/Jeannie and Janet/Jessie being the commonest. But you also get Peter/Patrick, Donald/Daniel, Marjorie/Marjory/May and various others.

See http://www.whatsinaname.net/ for lots more information about the use of names.

Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.
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