Words from a Reader

The “Writing Life Stories” e-mails I receive are such treasures. As soon as I see there is one in my inbox, I read it immediately. I look forward to them and never know how they will touch me. They can be interesting, informative, humorous, and/or touching.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

John Council of Jamestown

How are we related to John Council who came to this country in the 1700's? In my research, I find he entered at Jamestown, Virginia. Much has been written about John's family, his son Hodges Council and all their descendants many of whom migrated to North Carolina and further south.
Several family histories tell of the Virginia Councils, the large land holdings and prestigious positions they held.
The name has been spelled in various ways - Counsel, Counsell, Consell,
Councill, but, like many family names they get changed through Census records, or by a person's own choice.
In my mother's family, Robison is spelled as Robertson, Robinson, and Roberson on family records, but only by careful research can one find the family members, the ancestors and see how these names have been changed.
Mother's uncle Samuel Oliver Robison evidently changed the spelling of his name or it was changed for him when he left his family roots in South Georgia. His great grandson contacted me last year and asked why his name is spelled Robinson and his great great grandfather's name is John Monroe Robison? It is interesting to see when and where in the line the spelling of names change. That is part of what makes genealogy research such a puzzle.
Tonight I plan to attend a class on the genealogy program Legacy which is touted as one of the best. Perhaps I'll find more to share on this site.

2 comments:

  1. It is interesting to find out why names were changed. My husband recently found out his "pressley" use to be "presley" and was changed about 4 generations ago. I bet many of the changes were made by someone who was educated (or thought they were) vs. someone who wasn't.

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  2. One thing I have learned after twenty years of "digging up bones" is you have to look under every possible spelling to find the corrent person.
    I plan to download the new legacy program even though I didn't get the chance to go to the class this week, I want to go and I heard it will do things no other genealogy program will do.

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