Lathrop vs Lothrop for Jane?

Question

I am picking up work on the Mayflower/Colonists merges and am at a wall with Jane Lothrop, wife of Samuel Fuller. I see her name both as Lothrop and Lathrop when I look up information on her, and am curious if the group has input here.

Abby

Answer 1

The references I have point to Lothropp as the spelling of her father's surname.  I've seem the name spelled both ways in references.  Lothrop seems to be used more often.  The Society of Mayflower Descendents uses Lothrop, but seem to accept the Lathrop spelling also.

Comments

Thank you Becky! I will go ahead with Lothrop, then. It didn't look like you had done much with her since you finished your other Fullers, and someone had proposed a merge for Samuel, so I thought I'd work in there some.

Answer 2

 

Dear Abby, (couldn't resist)

Although I'm just a fledgling in the genealogy field, I would suggest that you explore BOTH spellings.  The Soundex will come along later to do that in our Federal Census, which can often lead us out of the confusion associated with misspellings in transcriptions, "dialectical differences" and penmanship variations.

I suspect that you might prefer one spelling or the other, but keep your antennae up for both and consider that education and penmanship, as well as other factors, will be a spectrum.  It is always possible to misinterpret (or overlook a valid source) if we put too fine a point on spelling.

Then follow the trails that both spellings have so kindly left behind. 

I do the same for consonants as well, which led me to find my great grandfathers marriage certificate, handwritten in the period-correct penmanship, only by digging through the collected original documents and keeping an open mind. 

Jim in New Mexico

Comments

Thanks Jim. I planned on putting different variations up there. My trouble is setting the LNAB. I don't want to offend someone who thinks one is more correct than another. Both variations are present in older documents, but I wanted to give others working the Mayflower merges a chance to weigh in before I set the final profile.

Answer 3

Hi Abby, when faced with the multiple spelling of a surname situation.  I use the most commonly used by the extended family.  In the Bio I add in the also found as names and where the variation came from Town, Church, tombstone etc...  I do this because the majority of the people researching will find it easier.

Comments

Alan,

 I try my best, according to wikitree guidelines, to search out what may have been the correct last name at birth for the time period the individual was born. We know that due to changes in location and standards, and simple mispelling, often that name changes across the course of the individual's life, and those other spellings are important to note. The lnab at birth is not always the most common spelling used by descendants. I put those in the "other last names" field, as they will bring up that variation in searches.

Thanks for the input!

Answer 4

Yes, I know this is a very late answer, but I wasn't around here when you originally asked.  The oldest Lathrop/Lothrop ancester that lived in North America was rev John (Lothrop-3).  He apparently spelled his name both Lothrop and Lothropp himself, and his children were recorded as Lothrop.

The story I heard (no real proof) is that one of Rev John's sons or grandsons was a friend of the son of Gov Winthrop.  That person kept calling him "Lathrop", and eventually the name was changed for that branch of the family.  I have Lathrop first appearing with Rev John's grandson Israel (Lathrop-34).  It's a cute story, and might even have some truth to it.

In any case, to decide if someone is Lathrop or Lothrop depends which of Rev John's grandchildren they are decended from.  I'm decended from Israel, and that branch of the family has been Lathrop ever since.