Spelling Variations

What’s in a name?

Ancestors in the Mizell family can be identified with various spellings of their last names. As was common throughout almost all families centuries ago, people were illiterate: they had almost no skills at reading or writing. They were not used to writing their names. So, spelling of the Mizell name, when it had to be recorded on paper, was based on how it sounded.

Through the 1600s, 1700s and 1800s, Mizells were getting married, buying land, recording wills, paying taxes, being counted in the census, and other events where the name had to be written down. Those doing the writing perhaps knew the “right” spelling, but often that spelling was the same for all the family members around that region.

So the family name was written down how it sounded. But that isn’t the end of the problem. Once the name was written down, others had to read it. Do we have problems reading each others writing today? Those reading the written name had to struggle with recognizing individual letters, so that contributed to still further variations in the spelling.

How many of the spellings have your found in historical records? In alphabetical order, here are spellings, which have been found in recent searches through records. How do we know that they are ancestors in the family tree? Because the first names, and the places where those first names occurred, match other records about the family.

If you’ve been searching Mizell ancestors in early historical records, and cannot find who you’re looking for, think of the possible variations in spelling. You might have to look again!