I am wanting any information on the name CONTESSOIR, which my mother and her dad both have in their forenames. Google and the Internet have both failed me at the moment.
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Hello OC, yes the spelling is correct as I have checked both documents. I have found a surname of CONTES on the Internet. I wonder where the SOIR bit comes in though? Also above the e in each is either a small / on one and going the other way \ on the other, I suppose denoting the male and female versions.
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This is a puzzle - it sounds French but can't find anyone with this name either in France- has it been deformed from its original version - it does makes me think of 'conte du soir' said quickly it would sound like Contessoir - literally 'evening tale - loose translation 'fireside tale' -CAROLE : "A CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK"
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Taffyfrog
I'ver forgotten most of the French I ever knew, but could it mean " evening storyteller" - as in Contes soir?
As for the accent going one way, then the other, I think that would have more to do with the ignorance of the clerk. I am not aware that the direction of the accent has anything to do with denoting gender.
My great grandfather, grandfather and father all have an unusual "surname" for a middle name. As my great grandfather made up this name (it's not on his birth certificate, nor was he baptised with it) and started using it in middle age, I have to assume it was merely a Victorian affectation. I have not traced this name as a surname anywhere in my family's history.
OC
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I've been trying to find Mr Contessoir-Harnett, but I can't see an obvious birth for him, and I can't find him in the 1911 census either, even just using the surname Harnett. I can see his wife's death; she died quite young, and it doesn't look as though they had any children. I can't find a death for him, although if he was born in 1904 as the private tree on Ancestry says, he would almost certainly have died by 2005, which is the date that Ancestry deaths go up to. Very annoying.Last edited by Mary from Italy; 16-05-12, 21:14.
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OC is right about the accents in French - nothing to do with masculine or feminine - just about the way the 'e' environment is pronounced and also came to te same conclusion as Mary.
But 'story teller' would be a 'conteur'
OC-let us in on the secret - the new way to research -to do with the *? Have only used this with the first letters of the name so farCAROLE : "A CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK"
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