Question

Ann Comengs father is supposedly Alexander Cumming. Why would she spell her last name different from her father?

Answer 1

Our ancestors had varying levels of literacy, and many couldn't even write their own names. It's possible that Ann couldn't write, and when she had a situation in which her name needed to be taken or if she had asked someone to write a letter for her, she told the transcriber her name. The transcriber may have had shaky spelling skills, or Ann had an accent that made it sound more like "Comengs" than "Cumming", so that's what they wrote down.

Comments

Do not forget Census records, actual images, show read/write. Nice tidbits of info for family history.

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I'd also like to add that spelling wasn't fixed until late in the 18th century, with the appearance of dictionaries, so all words were just spelt as you heard them - and as Erin says, it may well have sounded like Comengs, particularly with an Irish accent.