Its The Accent What

It’s The Accent What Does It

My searches just recently have been for the PETT family of Spalding who left the county to live in the Doncaster area in the early part of the 19th century.  In the parish registers we only have the PITT surname and the occasional PIDD. Usually this can be explained by the fact that the PETT that is giving his/her name to the vicar has a strong accent which the vicar then translates as PITT.  The books agree with me here (which doesn’t help) for under PETT they say to ‘See PITT’.  So the question is how do you prove that they are one and the same.  What one hopes for here is a change in the vicar and hopefully a change in the name.  To illustrate this take that of the gentleman who discovered a comet; most people pronounce the name as HAYLEY or HALIE but is this right for I have seen in one register the name spelt HALLEY and HAULEY.  This indicates that the first element is pronounced HALL. Where does this leave PETT research?  To be as sure as one can be the only thing one can hope for is to carry on looking for an entry with a change of spelling where the two can be linked together.  In addition to the spellings above the book also has putt and they all come from a location.  It is the dweller by the pits or hollows and is from the Old English pytt.  There is village with the name Pett in Kent and one called Pitt in Hampshire.
A phone call set me on the trail of GUENIGAULT & COSFORD of London.  What an opportunity we have to get the spelling wrong when it comes to a French name and an English accent.  These are Huguenots that had been here a while but in the 1881 census there is but one head of house and that is Charles who was born in London.  Could this be the one and only link to today’s families? A swift rummage on Google and up comes the www.tolliss.com/ site where can be found 84 GUENIGAULT individuals.  A number of these should be living in London during 1881 so why aren’t they listed? The father of Charles, Louis Stephen GUENIGAULT, can be found on the Tollis site along with half a dozen of Charles uncles.  Many of these had children. A French genealogical site also has GUENIGAUD as a spelling. Swapping a few letters around gives a few more individuals by the surname GUEINGAULE living in Battersea.  The family is still there today with Mary GUENIGAULT working with the Liberal Democrats in Southwark.  There is a hero in their midst for during the First World War amongst those lost on the raid on Zeebrugge was Able Seaman GUINIGAULT. Charles William GUENIGAULT was 19 years old and the son of Frederick William and Hannah of Essex Road.   My books are deficient as to a meaning.  The second however is a place name and  comes from the person called Cossa who had control of the ford over a river.
Bits and Bobs
Fiona of the Grimsby FHS was at the Lincolnshire Family History Society AGM and was one of those lucky enough to hear John Wilson, archivist at the North-east Lincolnshire Archives speak on the Lottery funded project which involves indexing the Crew Lists held at Grimsby and Hull. While there is a lot more Grimsby data the Hull index has beaten them to the punch and they are on line at www.hullcc.gov.uk/.  Go to the online catalogue and using DPF as a reference type in your name.  She will let those on the internet know when Grimsby is up and running.