Re: The Addition of the Letter E?
-
In reply to:
The Addition of the Letter E?
Gary Ray 3/02/11
To 'e' or not to 'e', that is the question..!!
Tina, the answer to that question is what makes genealogy fun and interesting. Most of the Pool ancestors started out as Pettypool or Pettipoole or even other variations. These names morphed into Petty Pool, Pool and Poole and even P'Pool. My family legend says that Pettypool was often copied as Whatever (first name) Petty (middle name) and Pool (last name) on court and land records until the mid-1800's when most everyone had dropped the "petty" part and just went by Pool or Poole.
In my own family, I have copies of letters written by my grandfather Thomas Jefferson Pool to his mother Mary (Westmorland) Poole around 1902. He addressed the envelope to Mary Poole but signed the letter T.J. Pool, without the "e". My father, Dean Layton Pool, explained that when they had moved to Texas in 1899 the court clerk had used "Pool" on the deed to the farm they had purchased in Grayson County, Tx. Remember that in past centuries, almost everyone in the U.S. was a farmer - and that having a clear title to ownership of land was probably the most important legal issue facing many. According to my father, the family thought it was just easier to start going by Pool instead of Poole rather than try to change the title to the land.
As a child in the 1950's I went to a Pool Family reunion and noticed that half the name tags said Pool, and the other half said Poole.
BTW, just a couple of weeks ago I finally tracked down an old Grayson County, Texas land map and saw the name "J.T. Pool" pencilled in on one plot of land.
To add to the confusion, a lot of our ancestors were semi-literate, and therefore both first and last names were often distorted by record clerks or cenus takers.
More Replies:
-
Re: The Addition of the Letter E?
Stella Poole 4/26/11