Researching name DEGINSEY (sp?)

Thread View: net.roots

2 messages

[T] Back to Threads [V] Tree View [G] Group Articles

2 total messages Started by wales Wed, 11 Dec 1985 18:59

#24

Author: wales
Date: Wed, 11 Dec 1985 18:59

36 lines
2583 bytes

I would like to hear from anyone who has run across the last name
DEGINSEY, or anything which might look like it when written by someone
with sloppy handwriting, poor hearing, or minimal spelling skills.

James WALES (b. June 1834 in England) married Mary Jane DEGINSEY (sp?)
(b. Apr. 1844 in England) around 1863.  They settled in Grass Valley,
California (NE of Sacramento, in the Sierras).  They were my great-
great-grandparents.

My only record so far of Mary Jane Wales's maiden name comes from the
birth record of one of her children (a great-great-uncle).  The record
itself is simply a one-liner in a handwritten ledger.  It appears to
unmistakably say "Deginsey" as the mother's maiden name, and no one else
who has looked at the entry can think of any other way to read it.

Yet, I have searched the English civil birth registration microfilms for
1844 (and a couple years before and after 1844), and not only can I not
find Mary Jane Deginsey listed there, but I can't find *anyone at all*
with this surname.  I have also spoken with several British friends,
none of whom have ever heard of the name.

On the chance that bad handwriting or bad spelling might be involved,
I looked in the English birth records for any names starting with the
letters [DP][ei][gjz], without success.

No record of the marriage appears to be available (my info on the time
of the marriage comes from a notation in the 1900 census).  I am trying
to find either Mary Jane Wales's death certificate or that of one of her
children, but I don't have any of these documents in hand yet.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
-- 
Rich Wales // UCLA Computer Science Department // +1 213-825-5683
	3531 Boelter Hall // Los Angeles, California 90024 // USA
	ARPA:   wales@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU  -or-  wales@UCLA-LOCUS.ARPA
	UUCP:   ...!(ucbvax,ihnp4)!ucla-cs!wales

Re: DEGINSEY (really TREGENZA!)

#48

Author: wales
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1985 22:13

31 lines
2415 bytes

A while ago, I asked for any leads on the surname DEGINSEY -- the maiden
name of my great-great-grandmother (Mary Jane DEGINSEY), who was born in
England, married James WALES, and settled in Grass Valley, CA.

Well, last week I spent a day in Grass Valley, and a little bit of ask-
ing around got me in touch with two distant cousins -- one of whom has
been doing family history research for several years!  I just finished
talking on the phone with my new-found genealogist cousin, and we should
be able to make some additional progress by pooling our resources.

Anyway, it turns out that my 2G-grandmother's maiden name was not DEGIN-
SEY at all, but TREGENZA.  This name apparently started out as TREGANZA
(someone respelled or misspelled it somewhere along the line), and --
according to my cousin -- comes from Cornwall, England.  Its ultimate
origin may be Spanish (Castillian).

The name DEGINSEY -- recorded in a ledger of birth records -- was obvi-
ously the result of some clerk's never having heard the name TREGENZA
before in his life and simply writing down what he thought he had heard.
This is not at all unprecedented, needless to say; the immigration peo-
ple at Ellis Island, for example, were notorious for this kind of thing.

Thanks to everyone who suggested possible mutations or alternate read-
ings of DEGINSEY.  When the LDS genealogical library in Los Angeles
reopens next week, I'm going to take another look at the English birth
index -- this time looking under the right name!
--
Rich Wales // UCLA Computer Science Department // +1 213-825-5683
        3531 Boelter Hall // Los Angeles, California 90024 // USA
        ARPA:   wales@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU  -or-  wales@UCLA-LOCUS.ARPA
        UUCP:   ...!(ucbvax,ihnp4)!ucla-cs!wales

Thread Navigation

This is a paginated view of messages in the thread with full content displayed inline.

Messages are displayed in chronological order, with the original post highlighted in green.

Use pagination controls to navigate through all messages in large threads.

Back to All Threads