Children of this union were Ruth Stutson b 1856 (m G. Delano), Estella Louise b 1857 (m J. Delano),Gilbert b 1859, and Lantha.
~~~
Ansel's larger family used surnames as middle names and at times used "sound it out" and other wise odd spellings that indicate speaking a dialect.
A local biography was written while he was still living. It said his father was Capt. Lincoln Gurney (meaning sea captain), son of Levi, and that Ansel lived on what was once Levi's farmland. Records show numerous cousins lived nearby, including Heman Stetson Gurney.
EXPLANATIONS--
(1) Other Gurneys born in the smallish town of Rochester, in the same generation as Ansel, included likely cousins said to be children of Samuel Gurney and Sarah. Their birth dates and parents are seen in the old book of "Vital Records of Rochester, Massachusetts: To the Year 1850" (pages 139,140, in Vol. 1) .
That same book gave his father's death date as 1830. Try hathitrust.com or archive.org to find searchable copies, as Google is often incomplete.
The date of 1830 was from a gravestone reading for Capt. Sullivan B. Gurney . If his father called Capt. died young, was always at sea before then, it behooved Ansel's mother to locate near family, including father-in-law Levi and the other Gurneys.
His father's early death and time at sea may have made Ansel's birth place hard to find? Were there any siblings? Any born elsewhere, maybe onboard, if the mother went to sea with the father? That was not uncommon then?
(2) The cousins include "Heman Stetson Gurney". Ansel always used the Stetson spelling, instead of "sounding it out" as Stutson, seen on Ansel's gravestone.
(3) It had became popular to remember mothers and grandmothers and aunts by using their maiden names for children, especially as middle names. The surnames of Ellis, Nelson and Shirtliff were seen as middle names for Heman's siblings, not just Stetson.
(4) Stetson was a common surname in some parts of Massachusetts that showed Gurneys locally. Stutson is not seen in their books of church records.
(5) Never seeing names correctly spelled, only hearing them said, someone, the parents or the children, decided to use Stutson, instead of Stetson, for Ansel's middle name.
(7). Knowing the variations lets more records be found.
Ansel could be a shortening of Hansel, meaning little Hans or Hans Junior, used when there had been a Hans senior still living. The English speaking descendants did not know this, nor the rules of the only languages, so find it hard to locate the Germanic ancestors that mixed with New Englanders fairly early. (Usually Dutch or German Reformed if crossing into NY, Hessian if early in Mass., Mennonite if early crossing into Penn.)
"Heman" would be written when perhaps "Herman" was meant.
Herman was a north German name, introduced after contact with Hessian soldiers from the British side captured in the Revolution who stayed and intermarried. Leaving out the R was much like modern Boston area dialects that pronounce "car" as "cah". Later generations often changed the name to, or assumed it originally was, Harman, seen in other families.
Thus, Bolles for his wife's maiden name might stand for the more common name of Bowles, with some relatives using that other spelling. Her first name of Lovicy was seen elsewhere for people also called Louise.
Sometimes, Louise was intended to be said in an old French-German way, with its "final e" pronounced and not silent, as a silent "final e" happened only in English, what we moderns might want to spell as Louisie. Also, the letters U and V were seen as interchangeable in some old-time spellings common among sets of the English. Before machine tools were around, some undertakers found it easier/faster to carve a V shape more deeply than a U.
Contributor: JBrown, IA, MN, Calif, AustinTX (48697180)
~~~
Ansel's larger family used surnames as middle names and at times used "sound it out" and other wise odd spellings that indicate speaking a dialect.
A local biography was written while he was still living. It said his father was Capt. Lincoln Gurney (meaning sea captain), son of Levi, and that Ansel lived on what was once Levi's farmland. Records show numerous cousins lived nearby, including Heman Stetson Gurney.
EXPLANATIONS--
(1) Other Gurneys born in the smallish town of Rochester, in the same generation as Ansel, included likely cousins said to be children of Samuel Gurney and Sarah. Their birth dates and parents are seen in the old book of "Vital Records of Rochester, Massachusetts: To the Year 1850" (pages 139,140, in Vol. 1) .
That same book gave his father's death date as 1830. Try hathitrust.com or archive.org to find searchable copies, as Google is often incomplete.
The date of 1830 was from a gravestone reading for Capt. Sullivan B. Gurney . If his father called Capt. died young, was always at sea before then, it behooved Ansel's mother to locate near family, including father-in-law Levi and the other Gurneys.
His father's early death and time at sea may have made Ansel's birth place hard to find? Were there any siblings? Any born elsewhere, maybe onboard, if the mother went to sea with the father? That was not uncommon then?
(2) The cousins include "Heman Stetson Gurney". Ansel always used the Stetson spelling, instead of "sounding it out" as Stutson, seen on Ansel's gravestone.
(3) It had became popular to remember mothers and grandmothers and aunts by using their maiden names for children, especially as middle names. The surnames of Ellis, Nelson and Shirtliff were seen as middle names for Heman's siblings, not just Stetson.
(4) Stetson was a common surname in some parts of Massachusetts that showed Gurneys locally. Stutson is not seen in their books of church records.
(5) Never seeing names correctly spelled, only hearing them said, someone, the parents or the children, decided to use Stutson, instead of Stetson, for Ansel's middle name.
(7). Knowing the variations lets more records be found.
Ansel could be a shortening of Hansel, meaning little Hans or Hans Junior, used when there had been a Hans senior still living. The English speaking descendants did not know this, nor the rules of the only languages, so find it hard to locate the Germanic ancestors that mixed with New Englanders fairly early. (Usually Dutch or German Reformed if crossing into NY, Hessian if early in Mass., Mennonite if early crossing into Penn.)
"Heman" would be written when perhaps "Herman" was meant.
Herman was a north German name, introduced after contact with Hessian soldiers from the British side captured in the Revolution who stayed and intermarried. Leaving out the R was much like modern Boston area dialects that pronounce "car" as "cah". Later generations often changed the name to, or assumed it originally was, Harman, seen in other families.
Thus, Bolles for his wife's maiden name might stand for the more common name of Bowles, with some relatives using that other spelling. Her first name of Lovicy was seen elsewhere for people also called Louise.
Sometimes, Louise was intended to be said in an old French-German way, with its "final e" pronounced and not silent, as a silent "final e" happened only in English, what we moderns might want to spell as Louisie. Also, the letters U and V were seen as interchangeable in some old-time spellings common among sets of the English. Before machine tools were around, some undertakers found it easier/faster to carve a V shape more deeply than a U.
Contributor: JBrown, IA, MN, Calif, AustinTX (48697180)
Children of this union were Ruth Stutson b 1856 (m G. Delano), Estella Louise b 1857 (m J. Delano),Gilbert b 1859, and Lantha.
~~~
Ansel's larger family used surnames as middle names and at times used "sound it out" and other wise odd spellings that indicate speaking a dialect.
A local biography was written while he was still living. It said his father was Capt. Lincoln Gurney (meaning sea captain), son of Levi, and that Ansel lived on what was once Levi's farmland. Records show numerous cousins lived nearby, including Heman Stetson Gurney.
EXPLANATIONS--
(1) Other Gurneys born in the smallish town of Rochester, in the same generation as Ansel, included likely cousins said to be children of Samuel Gurney and Sarah. Their birth dates and parents are seen in the old book of "Vital Records of Rochester, Massachusetts: To the Year 1850" (pages 139,140, in Vol. 1) .
That same book gave his father's death date as 1830. Try hathitrust.com or archive.org to find searchable copies, as Google is often incomplete.
The date of 1830 was from a gravestone reading for Capt. Sullivan B. Gurney . If his father called Capt. died young, was always at sea before then, it behooved Ansel's mother to locate near family, including father-in-law Levi and the other Gurneys.
His father's early death and time at sea may have made Ansel's birth place hard to find? Were there any siblings? Any born elsewhere, maybe onboard, if the mother went to sea with the father? That was not uncommon then?
(2) The cousins include "Heman Stetson Gurney". Ansel always used the Stetson spelling, instead of "sounding it out" as Stutson, seen on Ansel's gravestone.
(3) It had became popular to remember mothers and grandmothers and aunts by using their maiden names for children, especially as middle names. The surnames of Ellis, Nelson and Shirtliff were seen as middle names for Heman's siblings, not just Stetson.
(4) Stetson was a common surname in some parts of Massachusetts that showed Gurneys locally. Stutson is not seen in their books of church records.
(5) Never seeing names correctly spelled, only hearing them said, someone, the parents or the children, decided to use Stutson, instead of Stetson, for Ansel's middle name.
(7). Knowing the variations lets more records be found.
Ansel could be a shortening of Hansel, meaning little Hans or Hans Junior, used when there had been a Hans senior still living. The English speaking descendants did not know this, nor the rules of the only languages, so find it hard to locate the Germanic ancestors that mixed with New Englanders fairly early. (Usually Dutch or German Reformed if crossing into NY, Hessian if early in Mass., Mennonite if early crossing into Penn.)
"Heman" would be written when perhaps "Herman" was meant.
Herman was a north German name, introduced after contact with Hessian soldiers from the British side captured in the Revolution who stayed and intermarried. Leaving out the R was much like modern Boston area dialects that pronounce "car" as "cah". Later generations often changed the name to, or assumed it originally was, Harman, seen in other families.
Thus, Bolles for his wife's maiden name might stand for the more common name of Bowles, with some relatives using that other spelling. Her first name of Lovicy was seen elsewhere for people also called Louise.
Sometimes, Louise was intended to be said in an old French-German way, with its "final e" pronounced and not silent, as a silent "final e" happened only in English, what we moderns might want to spell as Louisie. Also, the letters U and V were seen as interchangeable in some old-time spellings common among sets of the English. Before machine tools were around, some undertakers found it easier/faster to carve a V shape more deeply than a U.
Contributor: JBrown, IA, MN, Calif, AustinTX (48697180)
~~~
Ansel's larger family used surnames as middle names and at times used "sound it out" and other wise odd spellings that indicate speaking a dialect.
A local biography was written while he was still living. It said his father was Capt. Lincoln Gurney (meaning sea captain), son of Levi, and that Ansel lived on what was once Levi's farmland. Records show numerous cousins lived nearby, including Heman Stetson Gurney.
EXPLANATIONS--
(1) Other Gurneys born in the smallish town of Rochester, in the same generation as Ansel, included likely cousins said to be children of Samuel Gurney and Sarah. Their birth dates and parents are seen in the old book of "Vital Records of Rochester, Massachusetts: To the Year 1850" (pages 139,140, in Vol. 1) .
That same book gave his father's death date as 1830. Try hathitrust.com or archive.org to find searchable copies, as Google is often incomplete.
The date of 1830 was from a gravestone reading for Capt. Sullivan B. Gurney . If his father called Capt. died young, was always at sea before then, it behooved Ansel's mother to locate near family, including father-in-law Levi and the other Gurneys.
His father's early death and time at sea may have made Ansel's birth place hard to find? Were there any siblings? Any born elsewhere, maybe onboard, if the mother went to sea with the father? That was not uncommon then?
(2) The cousins include "Heman Stetson Gurney". Ansel always used the Stetson spelling, instead of "sounding it out" as Stutson, seen on Ansel's gravestone.
(3) It had became popular to remember mothers and grandmothers and aunts by using their maiden names for children, especially as middle names. The surnames of Ellis, Nelson and Shirtliff were seen as middle names for Heman's siblings, not just Stetson.
(4) Stetson was a common surname in some parts of Massachusetts that showed Gurneys locally. Stutson is not seen in their books of church records.
(5) Never seeing names correctly spelled, only hearing them said, someone, the parents or the children, decided to use Stutson, instead of Stetson, for Ansel's middle name.
(7). Knowing the variations lets more records be found.
Ansel could be a shortening of Hansel, meaning little Hans or Hans Junior, used when there had been a Hans senior still living. The English speaking descendants did not know this, nor the rules of the only languages, so find it hard to locate the Germanic ancestors that mixed with New Englanders fairly early. (Usually Dutch or German Reformed if crossing into NY, Hessian if early in Mass., Mennonite if early crossing into Penn.)
"Heman" would be written when perhaps "Herman" was meant.
Herman was a north German name, introduced after contact with Hessian soldiers from the British side captured in the Revolution who stayed and intermarried. Leaving out the R was much like modern Boston area dialects that pronounce "car" as "cah". Later generations often changed the name to, or assumed it originally was, Harman, seen in other families.
Thus, Bolles for his wife's maiden name might stand for the more common name of Bowles, with some relatives using that other spelling. Her first name of Lovicy was seen elsewhere for people also called Louise.
Sometimes, Louise was intended to be said in an old French-German way, with its "final e" pronounced and not silent, as a silent "final e" happened only in English, what we moderns might want to spell as Louisie. Also, the letters U and V were seen as interchangeable in some old-time spellings common among sets of the English. Before machine tools were around, some undertakers found it easier/faster to carve a V shape more deeply than a U.
Contributor: JBrown, IA, MN, Calif, AustinTX (48697180)
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