M*CH*MORE One Name Study
CONVENTIONS
The following conventions are used for the spelling of surnames and
for dates and text notes in the family data.
Surname spelling
Surnames are always spelt in capitals (except for the 'c' in
McDONALD, etc.). Any name spelt in lower case except for a capital
initial letter is a forename.
Up to about 1850, when most M*CH*MOREs were illiterate, the spelling
of a person's name was at the whim of the recorder and therefore often
changed from record to record. We have adopted the convention of using
the spelling in the first known record—usually the baptism. Where the
surname is spelt differently in a subsequent record, or in the
transcription of that record, the actual spelling is shown in
parentheses at the end of the record.
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| Dates |
| |
date |
date as stated in church register*, civil registration
certificate or personal communication |
| |
[date] |
date as stated in International Genealogical Index
(IGI) |
| |
yyyy.q |
year and quarter as stated in the UK Civil Registration
Index |
| |
(date) |
estimated date, usually calculated from age stated in a
census or on a death certificate (probably accurate to within one or two
years) |
| |
yyyx |
estimated date, based on date of marriage, date of
birth of spouse or children, etc. (probably accurate to within 10 years) |
| |
yyxx |
estimated date, based on a record (will, burial,
electoral role etc.) which contains no statement of age (accurate to
within 100 years) |
| |
*Before 1752, the calendar year began on 25 March. For
example, church registers included what we would now consider to be
24Feb1743 in 1742. On this site, we use the common convention of
referring to this date as 24Feb1742/43.
|
| Text notes |
| |
(text) |
name spelling, when different from a person's stated
name (forenames, surname or both) |
| |
[text] |
editorial comment |
| |
text? |
best guess at transcribing text |