How do I research ancestors with variations of the same surname?
Ian Treen is struggling with alternative spellings of his surname
QI have researched my paternal line all the way back to my 4x great grandfather, Benjamin Treen, who was born in Devon in 1776 and died in 1841. He married Mary Selley in 1793.
The couple had eight children, all of whom appear in records with various derivatives of the Treen surname. I have tried a multitude of formats – Trend, Tren, Trenn, Trim – but I’m struggling to make much progress.
How do I research ancestors with so many different variations of the same surname? Is it possible to trace my ancestors back further? Ian AG Treen, via email
AMy first step was to look at FamilySearch ( familysearch. org) to see if I could find a Mary Selley marrying in Devon in 1793. This produces the following result: Benjamin Trend and Mary Selley, 5 February 1793, Kenn, Devon. A quick check on genuki.org.uk shows that the parish of Kenn is located south-west of Exeter.
I then searched the civil death indexes using ancestry.co.uk. I kept my search terms open, simply looking for Benjamin Tren*, using a wildcard substitution for the surname, in Devon, and with no date. This produces a single result: Benjamin Trenn, Apr-May-Jun 1841, St Thomas (probably St Thomas the Apostle, Exeter).
I also checked the whole of England for the same terms with no additional results. A crosscheck with the GRO index ( gro. gov.uk) finds Benjamin Trene, 83, 1841 Q2 St Thomas Union, volume ten, page 158.
The GRO reference matches the Ancestry entry, albeit the surname appears to be a transcription error. The age, 83, suggests a birth year of around 1758.
Using the marriage in 1793 as a basis, it would be reasonable to look for children around the period 1790 to 1820, possibly wider. FamilySearch finds eight entries for Trend/Tren/Trenn all with Benjamin as father and Mary as mother, from 1794 through to 1815, and all in the parish of Kenn, Devon.
Using FamilySearch to look for a Benjamin Tren* baptised in the period 1750 to 1770 in Devon we find a single entry: Benjamin Trend, 23 Feb 1766, Whitestone, Devon; Father Robert Trend and mother Anne.
Whitestone is a small parish three-and-a-half miles from Exeter and adjacent to St Thomas. There are four other children born to the same-named parents around the same time and place. The entry for Benjamin is some eight years later than the year indicated by the death index.
Ages given when a death is registered can be wide of the mark, depending, for example, on how well the informant knew the person. It is also worth bearing in mind that children may not be baptised immediately after birth and could be at least a few years old at the time.
Looking at Archer’s Surname Atlas, the name ‘Trend’ is more frequently occurring than ‘Tren’ or ‘Trenn’, which perhaps suggests that the latter are derivatives. The names are not listed in A Dictionary of British Surnames (PH Heaney, 1966) and nor are there any significant matches in the National Burial Index, third edition.
In situations where a surname is not spelt consistently, some strategies to try to include wildcards when searching (‘*’ or ‘?’), so that multiple names are included in the results list and you keep your options open. Select search options to include surname variations, but with an exact match on first name. It’s also worth narrowing searches to specific parishes and try searching on just the first name in a defined parish and date range
It’s always a good idea to cross-reference online sources. These typically have different sets of records, or in the case of records in common, the indexes may have been built from different transcriptions. Where possible, seek to view the original registers, copy images, registers, transcribed indexes and bishops’ transcripts.
Another way to approach the problem is to build up a picture of siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins. Search these as an alternative route to the target common ancestor.
If there are other potential matches to your person of interest, follow them up by checking marriages, offspring, deaths, burials and census returns to see if any can be ruled out.
Consider other records such as Poor Law records, apprenticeship records, wills too.
If you are dealing with an uncommon name then it might be worth extending your search to become a one-name study for a particular region. Geoff Young