Victorian sword stick esoterica

A. G. Maisey · 14th August 2025, 04:17 AM

Jim, what a lot of us --- me included --- tend to forget is that it is only in very recent times that English spelling has more or less been formalised. My own family name --- going back through the years --- has a lot of variations, the variation I use is from Cornwall, but originally the name was French, with a rather different spelling.

The English royal connection with Harry/Henry is well documented, but I was recently helping a friend carry out some research on his ancestors, & what I found was that as recently as only 100 years ago in Australia members of the same family had around 10 different ways in which to spell their own name, they were all rural dwellers, and by the look of it, most of them could not spell nor write nor read.

I learnt about the Harry thing when I was in high school & we were required to memorise extended passages of Shakespeare. I doubt that The Bard is even studied in school these days.

14th August 2025, 04:17 AM	#13
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 7,067	Jim, what a lot of us --- me included --- tend to forget is that it is only in very recent times that English spelling has more or less been formalised. My own family name --- going back through the years --- has a lot of variations, the variation I use is from Cornwall, but originally the name was French, with a rather different spelling. The English royal connection with Harry/Henry is well documented, but I was recently helping a friend carry out some research on his ancestors, & what I found was that as recently as only 100 years ago in Australia members of the same family had around 10 different ways in which to spell their own name, they were all rural dwellers, and by the look of it, most of them could not spell nor write nor read. I learnt about the Harry thing when I was in high school & we were required to memorise extended passages of Shakespeare. I doubt that The Bard is even studied in school these days.