Do You Speak the Same Language? (Case D)

Do you speak the same language as your ancestors? Before you answer too quickly let me clarify my question. I'm not talking about a foreign language. I'm specifically referring to local dialects. Knowing how your ancestors pronounced certain words, including names, can provide important clues for locating documents.

Those of us who have ancestry that runs through the south, particularly the Appalachian Mountain region, might encounter some difficulties due to spelling. Part of the problem in the early records was illiteracy but spelling errors continued to occur long after literacy was restored to the area.

I could give numerous examples of what I mean by this but I'll use Terrill Thompson to make my point. In Case C I discussed the difficulty in finding a death certificate for Matilda Tewksbury based upon information gleaned from her tombstone. In that case, Matilda had remarried (actually, she had remarried twice) but nothing on her grave indicated her forays into the holy estate of matrimony beyond that of her marriage to Thomas Tewksbury. It took a chance encounter with her name next to her daughter's on a census record to eventually locate her death certificate under a different name than the one found on her grave.

This case is somewhat similar. The spelling of Terrill Thompson's name and the information concerning his death was obtained from his headstone. It was assumed that his death certificate would be easily obtained. That was not to be!

 

When the search began, no death certificate could be found in either the indices or in a search of the state archives. After lengthy attempts of spelling phonetically according to local speech patterns, the following document was finally located:

The name rendered "Terrill" on the headstone was given as "Turl" on the death certificate. This is not an isolated incident and colloquial pronunciation should always be considered when documents cannot be found using proper spelling. The letter "r" is particularly a troublesome one in some regional pronunciations. Vowels are also confused or used interchangeably. Alex is pronounced "Elick" and might be spelled that way. Dabney morphs into "Dabner" on his paperwork. Juanita may be spelled "Woneety" or "Neater." Josiah becomes "Sire."

This article is in no way intended to be mocking or insulting. These examples are from my own personal research.

As for Terrill's wife, Mandy? I've yet to locate her death certificate and suspect that an irregular spelling might be the cause. If anyone can offer assistance, I would be grateful.