Quote:
Originally Posted by Bearkins
I don't know if it was common to change names, but maybe someone else will know I need to establish her parents roots , as there are plenty of callens in Scotland.
|
Names could vary a great deal. As others have commented, this wasn't intentional as large numbers of people couldn't read or write at the time in questions. Curates, vicars, priests or whoever wrote down the names as they heard them spoken.
In Scotland, matters were further complicated in that names were transliterated from Gaelic in many parts of the country. Added to this, there was a process of anglicising surnames. For example, McGilthighnich became McIlheany and eventually Shaw. Mac prefixes were dropped from some names. If there is a Scottish connection, then you would also need to look at McCallan as a variant of Callen.