Before I started out with genealogy, I assumed that my ancestors had the same surname as me. But not all of them are Hancock, there are variations on the surname as I go back in time. All Hancock's descended from my 5th Great Grandfather, Jacob Hancock (The same Jacob with three son's named Jacob featured in my last post) have the exact same surname, but his father, William, has the Surname spelt 'Hancocke'.
Often when a surname is suddenly different it is because the original person who recorded the baptismal record simply spelt it wrong, or they have been transcribed incorrectly. However, William's ancestors are recorded as Hancocke. Sometimes it is really hard to read what is written. William Hancocke's father married Ann. Here is a copy of the original record:
It's really hard to read but I got William Hancocke, but his wife? Ann is ok but her surname is so hard to distinguish. The person who transcribed the record has recorded it as Vamx. However when you read the entire page from the church records, you can recognise some of the idiosyncrasies of the vicar's writing. The V is wrong, it is a C. So now we have Camx, but that mx at the end is, in fact, mp, so now we have Camp. Interestingly her surname is recorded as 'Campe' in all earlier records. The transcriber was clearly having a bad day as he records William's surname as 'Hantoth', a one-off aberration. As we go further back the name changes again to Hancoke.
Another example is my grandmother's paternal ancestors. The surname going back in time is; Pickup, Piccup, Piccop, Piccope and finally Picop.
Much earlier in my tree Welsh ancestors surnames were determined by their father's name. So Ralph ap Eynion's children were 'David ap Ralph' and 'Margaret verch Ralph', resembling the Icelandic tradition where Magnus' son is Magnus Magnuson and his daughter Bjork Magnesdottir.
So if you venture to discover your ancestry, be aware that the surname might not be what you at first expect!
