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Staffordshire Dialect query

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  • Staffordshire Dialect query

    I have been looking at the children of Charles Goostry and his wife Sarah (ne. Stonehewer). Charles was born in 1758 in Staffordshire. I found christening records on the IGI Family Search for several of their children one of whom is shown as Stanier Goostry, born 1786 in Staffordshire. I doubt that Stanier is a correct transcription as all the other names are very plain and ordinary for the time.

    I have found a number of Stonehewer Goostrys further down the line and strongly suspect that these belong in the descendants of Sarah and Charles. Also children with a middle name of Stonehewer and suspect that Stanier could have been misinterpreted when the christening was being recorded. I feel it is likely that Charles and Sarah did call their first born son Stonehewer Goostry.

    Are there any experts on the old Staffordshire dialect out there who could tell me whether it is likely that a clerk could mishear Stonehewer for Stanier? Or am I just clutching at straws and wanting to find answeres to suit

  • #2
    I am not familiar with Staffordghire dialect either past or present, but Stanier for Stonehewer sounds extremely possible to me in more or less any neck of the woods!

    OC

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    • #3
      I grew up in North Staffordshire and remember Stanier as a standard surname - just checked on the National Trust map - most Staniers were concentrated in the area. Sorry- it doesn't answer your question - but a bit of lateral thinking!

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      • #4
        Thanks both of you. Seems I am no wiser, but, in my clutching at straws mode; if Stanier was a standard surname in that area then a local accent saying Stonehewer may well have been interpreted as something familiar to the area and recorded as Stanier.

        I know I can have no proof but it seems likley that it was Stonehewer as they went on to use the name as a middle name for generations to follow.

        Thanks for your thoughts.

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        • #5
          As a Stokie born and bred, let me think. Vowels are very flat there so stone to stan is easy for me to see. The h is almost certain to have been dropped, and the 'e' sound is failry extreme in the Potteries, so something like 'Stan-ewe-er' seems highly likely to me. So said quickly Stanier seems perfectly plausible.

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          • #6
            Thanks Kate. Everythin on my tree is carefully validated but if I go with this assumption it opens up a whole new possible branch on my tree. I know it will only be based on assumption but I think I am happy to wing it on this one and see what I find on that basis alone.

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            • #7
              It depends on what part of Staffordshire they lived in. The accent across Staffordshire is so varied from Stoke in the north to Dudley in the south.
              I have found no end of variations even with common surnames - my Reeds were referred to all the time in their local parish records as Reay, this only came to light through disecting the parish records and censuses for the village in detail and the realisation that no-one in the census was called Reay. The only thing that sprung to mind was that the father was not very local to the area and that he had a bit of an accent.
              Helen
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              • #8
                Muppet, Helen is right, accents vary widely across the Staffs area. The northern and Stoke accent is vaguely reminiscent of a liverpudlian one, whereas the further south you go, you're looking at Dudley/Birmingham/Black Country twangs. I've just looked up your Stanier Goostry and it's Norton in the Moors, which is currently a small village-like area in the northern outskirts of Stoke. And if the rest of the children are those born in Burslem and Hanley in 1788 and 1790, I'd say that's fairly compelling circumstantial evidence and well worth following up.

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                • #9
                  i live in stafford and there accent is ok it hasnt got anything definet but stoke,wolvehampton and birmingham,stoke have.. so i would say stick with the stonehewer....you could ask at the stafford reg office and ask them brenda xxx

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