Re: Mary Anna Machen & Arthur Talton
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In reply to:
Re: Mary Anna Machen & Arthur Talton
7/17/00
Why the added 'T' in Machen?
I spent many long, lost hours when I began the research on my husbands family - way back in 1970.His surname was BROWN but his grandmother's line was, I was informed, MITCHEN.This family was from southern Arkansas and, yes there is a bit of a dialect in that area. The 'aunties' who were eager to give me information talked about the 'Mitchen' family.I was armed with several given names and areas of origination.I searched and searched.Finally, totally beaten down, I returned to the favorite auntie and begged for more information on the Mitchen family.She produced a Bible with the name written in the documents pages.It was MACHEN.Totally confused, I asked her "what about the Mitchen family?"- Her confused look scared me!"This IS the Mitchen family", she affirmed."It isn't spelled the way it sounds", she informed me.
No, it isn't spelled the way THEY pronounced it.Mit-chen or, as other's in the family say, Mah-chen.I'm sort of a Yankee and I looked at the word and saw Mac-hen....it's all in how you look at something, right?
I've learned of several Machen men, who, apparently disgusted with the issue, resolved it by the addition of a 'T' in the middle of the name.Ergo - MATCHEN.Problem solved~