Yarrow Descendant - Di Smith
25 March 2007,
Hello Di. I am also a descendant of Charles Yarrow and Jane Titmarsh (Titmus) and published a Yarrow Family History "A Vision Splendid" in 1999 on Charles and Jane and their descendants and held a Family Reunion in Rosewood Q. in September 1999.In the early years there were several variances in the spelling of our name eg. Garrell, Garrall, Garwel, Garwell, Yarrel,Yerrel and Yerrill. My only explanation for ths is as follows (and I quote from my book) " remember very few of our early ancestors could read or write. The early Parish Priests and their Clerks were notoriously bad writers and spellers as is evidenced by advices received from our various researchers when endeavouring to decipher Register entries.When the entry was made the recorder would no doubt have written the name as it sounded and, in so doing quite possibly spelt it incorrectly in any case. Our ancestors would not even have been aware of te fact. There is also evidence in the Registers of alterations, eg. the "G" in Garrall being changed to a "Y" in some cases." I have a copy of the entry in the Parish Registers for Charles' baptism and the Y is a perfect "G" with the name Yarrow looking more like Garrow.
Regards.
Noel Yarrow
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Re: Yarrow Descendant - Di Smith
1/04/08