Documentation summarization exercise

Post date: Apr 16, 2015 1:39:31 PM

A message to EKHeraldEd from Alys Blue Tyger in February 2015 gives the following advice:

One of the things that makes both my job and Diademe's job more difficult is the failure of submitters and heralds to summarize the documentation submitted. Without proper summaries, we have to spend time reading and interpreting linked articles or cited books.

A good documentation summary contains:

• The name of the article or book where you find the name;
• The author of the article or book;
• The url for any on-line source;
• The date given for the name in the source; and
• Proof of the name formation pattern, particularly if it is in a language other than English. Common name formation patterns can be found in Appendix A of SENA. Any patterns not found in Appendix A must be documented.

If documenting a name from the Family Search Historical Records (www.familysearch.org), at a minimum, you must include:

• the name,
• the gender,
• the date when the name was found,
• the country where the name was found, and
• the batch number.

Lillia Pelican has stated that she finds it useful for the url of the specific record(s) used to be included as well.

Abundant examples of summaries can be found in every East Kingdom ILoI.

Examples of Good Documentation Summaries

For the name Eoin Ó Mathghamhna

"Quick and Easy Gaelic Names (3rd Ed.)" by Sharon Krossa (http://www.medievalscotland.org/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/#clanaffiliationbyname) sets out the pattern for clan affiliation-style bynames as: <single given name> Ó <eponymous clan ancestor's name (in genitive case)>

Eoin is an Early Modern Irish Gaelic name with 58 Annals dates between 1246 and 1600, appearing in "Index of Names in Irish Annals" by Kathleen O’Brien (http://www.medievalscotland.org/kmo/AnnalsIndex/Masculine/Eoin.shtml)

Mathghamhain is also found in “Index of Names in Irish Annals” (http://www.medievalscotland.org/kmo/AnnalsIndex/Masculine/Mathgamain.shtml), with Annals dates of 1255, 1266, 1271, 1314, 1461, 1472, 1483, 1489, 1588. Mathghamhain is the nominative form; Mathghamhna is the genitive form.

For the name Mergery Potticary

Mergery is found in “English Given Names from 16th and Early 17th C Marriage Records” by Aryanhwy merch Catmael (http://heraldry.sca.org/names/english/parishes/parishes.html) s.n. Margery dated to 1583.

Potticary appears in Bardsley, A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, p. 617 s.n. Potticary, with this spelling dated to 1591.

This naming pattern for English names is found in Appendix A of SENA.

Here is a practice exercise for summarizing. As is often the case when I open my Blue Tyger mail, all you've been given about each name is a link to an on-line article. Now write up a narrative summary of one or two sentences for each and e-mail them to me privately.

My answers are in normal font, the information provided is in bold font.

1: Bettany Basset -

Submitter desires a feminine name.

Bettany - http://heraldry.sca.org/names/SomethingRichandStrange.html

Basset - http://heraldry.sca.org/names/english/berkeley100.html

Bettany is a female name found in FamilySearch.

Bettany Hill, female, christened in Horsington, England on January 11, 1634, batch CO2943-2, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J3QM-SHZ.

Basset is found in Names found in the Berkeley Hundred Court Rolls by Aryanhwy merch Catmael (Sara L. Friedemann) as William Bassett, with the source dated to 1543. http://heraldry.sca.org/names/english/berkeley100.html

This naming pattern for English names is found in Appendix A of SENA.

2: Dondo de Navarra -

Dondo - http://heraldry.sca.org/names/french/saintflour.html

de Navarra - http://heraldry.sca.org/names/latefrenchfem.html

I would have to confer with someone more experienced with French naming patterns to know if the different regions of France spoke the same language or a different one - am I documenting a French name, an Occitan/Provencal name, or a combo? Naming patterns look similar enough, combining them is allowed by SENA, and there's no indication of desire for period authenticity in one or the other, so this question in my mind probably doesn't matter.

Dondo is a personal name found in Occitan names from Saint Flour, France, 1380-1385, by Aryanhwy merch Catmael with the spelling of Dondo. http://heraldry.sca.org/names/french/saintflour.html

de Navarra is a locative byname found in Late Period Feminine Names from the South of France by Talan Gwynek, dated to 1425. http://heraldry.sca.org/names/latefrenchfem.html

The naming pattern of given+byname for French names is found in Appendix A of SENA.

________________________________

3: Ernoult Marchant de Fleury -

Ernoult - http://heraldry.sca.org/names/lallaing/lallaing_names_masculine_given.html

Marchant - http://heraldry.sca.org/names/french/provins1587.html

de Fleury - http://heraldry.sca.org/names/french/provins1587.html

________________________________

4: Hugo de Castronovo -

Submitter desires a masculine name.

Hugo - http://heraldry.sca.org/names/french/saintflour.html

de Castronovo - http://heraldry.sca.org/names/italian15m.html