I’m Calling Him Agusta

It can be difficult to decide how to refer to an ancestor. Yet thinking about it can be an excellent genealogical exercise.

Documents should always be transcribed as they are written-whether the spelling is “correct,” slightly off, or an egregious error. The researcher should always explain in their analysis of a document why they the right person is in a record when the name is significantly different than the normal, expected name.

But when writing about an ancestor whose name gets spelled in a variety of ways one has to make a decision:

how do I spell this ancestor’s name when referring to her?

Choosing a random spelling is not the answer. Rotating through the various name spellings is not the answer either, especially because it can be extremely confusing. Then there is the issue of “knowing” how a deceased person wanted their name to be spelled. That can be extremely difficult to know as most people don’t leave behind instructions for the desired spelling of their name. The problem can be compounded with ancestors who are born in a country that speaks one language and end up living in a country where another language is spoken.

The following are some things I consider when deciding what name to “use” for an ancestor:

• the name inscribed on their tombstone
• the “standard” spelling of their name
• how they spelled the name when they actually wrote it themselves

There are limitations to this method. Not everyone has a tombstone. Tombstone inscriptions are not necessarily chosen by the person who is named on the stone. Some names have multiple standard spellings. Some names are created by the parents and extremely uncommon. Some ancestors signatures are not extant or the ancestor only makes their mark. No method is fullproof. My personal preference is to use a standard, commonly accepted spelling of the name if there is no indication to the contrary.

But some ancestors are not standard.

Agusta Newman is one of those ancestors whose name is not quite spelled the way one might think. Various records also refer to him as Augusta, August, Auguste, etc.

But in several extant documents that include his signature, he signed “Agusta” as his first name. The 1790-era native of Maryland died in White County, Indiana, in 1861 and several of those signatures are contained in his bounty land warrant application based on his War of 1812 service.

For this reason, I’m referring to him as Agusta.

As mentioned, transcriptions of records related to Agusta will render his name how it is written in those documents.

This man will be called Agusta Newman.

I have ancestors who are called Frustrating, Aggravating, and Irritating. But that has nothing to do with how they signed their name.