wales@ucla-cs.UUCP (12/31/85)
A while ago, I asked for any leads on the surname DEGINSEY -- the maiden
name of my great-great-grandmother (Mary Jane DEGINSEY), who was born in
England, married James WALES, and settled in Grass Valley, CA.
Well, last week I spent a day in Grass Valley, and a little bit of ask-
ing around got me in touch with two distant cousins -- one of whom has
been doing family history research for several years! I just finished
talking on the phone with my new-found genealogist cousin, and we should
be able to make some additional progress by pooling our resources.
Anyway, it turns out that my 2G-grandmother's maiden name was not DEGIN-
SEY at all, but TREGENZA. This name apparently started out as TREGANZA
(someone respelled or misspelled it somewhere along the line), and --
according to my cousin -- comes from Cornwall, England. Its ultimate
origin may be Spanish (Castillian).
The name DEGINSEY -- recorded in a ledger of birth records -- was obvi-
ously the result of some clerk's never having heard the name TREGENZA
before in his life and simply writing down what he thought he had heard.
This is not at all unprecedented, needless to say; the immigration peo-
ple at Ellis Island, for example, were notorious for this kind of thing.
Thanks to everyone who suggested possible mutations or alternate read-
ings of DEGINSEY. When the LDS genealogical library in Los Angeles
reopens next week, I'm going to take another look at the English birth
index -- this time looking under the right name!
--
Rich Wales // UCLA Computer Science Department // +1 213-825-5683
3531 Boelter Hall // Los Angeles, California 90024 // USA
ARPA: wales@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU -or- wales@UCLA-LOCUS.ARPA
UUCP: ...!(ucbvax,ihnp4)!ucla-cs!wales