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Until the 19th century spelling of surnames was variable, so it is essential to check possible variants when searching for a name. To help you do this, this site has two powerful search facilities: the wildcard *, representing any or no letter; and the wildcard ?, representing a single letter. Using these carefully can enable you to track down variant spellings without having to sift through many irrelevant entries. For instance, if you were searching for Birch, and knew that it was often spelt Burch, you might try B?rch. But if you wanted all manner of Birchall variants, B?rch*l* would be suitable.

When searching for a surname before, say, 1600, greater thought has to be given to the possibilities. Mediaeval spelling tends to have unexpected doubling of consonants, and final e: so the surname Beal might appear as Beall or Bealle. Because the letter 'i' was not usually dotted in mediaeval handwriting, there is a tendency to use y, a letter less liable to be mistaken as part of the letter preceding or following: so Thin will appear as Thyn, Thynn, or Thynne. Some letters had different sounds in mediaeval usage, so the surname Judge would normally be spelt Jugge, which we tend to read as a form of Jug. Several mediaeval letters have dropped out of the alphabet: eth, thorn, wynn and yogh. On the other hand, the distinction between I and J and between U and V is a modern one.

Of the obsolete mediaeval letters, yogh was the most common, and represented a guttural sound now lost, but still shown by our spelling of 'knight' and 'daughter'. When printed and/or indexed the yogh may be represented as 'gh' or 'g' or 'y' or 'z' or even '3'. The form 'z' is most common in Scottish usage, and is found in surnames like Menzies, where the old yogh sound may still be heard.

Before 1200 surnames, such as there were, are often Latinized. Wood, for instance, will be found as de Bosco; Smith as Faber. Surnames that are derived from a placename commonly have 'de' in front, or 'del' if the place had a 'the' in front of it. Surnames derived from a nickname or personal description will often have 'le' such as 'le Fletcher'.

If searching for a modern name with De, Da, Du, Del, La, Le, St, Van, Vander, Ap, &c. it is worthwhile experimenting, trying the elements apart and joined together: for instance, Ap Rees as well as Aprees. Our indexes make no distinction for case: de Courcy is indistinguishable from De Courcy.

Mc and Mac may appear as such, or as M': just as the records vary greatly in treating Scottish and Irish surnames, it is as well to experiment with possible ways of representing these names when searching the indexes. For instance, Macduff might appear as m'duff, macduff, mcduff, mc'duff, mackduff, &c.