Re: Camfield
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In reply to:
Camfield
Bill Canfield 2/23/11
Don't know as if the spelling on one's surname is exactly a hair-splitting thing.
There are all sorts of corruptions of Camfield, and I listed several dozen of them in my book--Cornfield, Canfill, Kenfield, Cawmefeylde . . .
One of the most common is Campfield. I used to get an occasional one like that in return correspondence--probably from people acquainted with Campbells and just weren't paying attention. And I've also stood in front of clerks who began to write it down that way. Pretty easy to see where some changes occurred in earlier years.
It just bothers me most when others chose to arbitrarily change Camfield to Canfield in my direct line back to Matthew and beyond--when none of them spelled it Canfield themselves. I don't want to be re-created in someone else's image. I have samples of Matthew's signature and a transcription of his will . . . as I've mentioned, a family Bible from 1700s, etc.
Where does one draw the line of dismissing variations--"Cornfield," "Canfield" or what? It's sort of like being baptized post-mortem by the Latter-Day Saints.
As for those old knights of 1066, I prefer de Camville to De Caumvylle as Camville, Normandy, is were they came from and "of Camville" seems more appropriate. As I understand it, there were three of them, Roger, Richard and Gerald.
And so it goes. I've just resumed corresponding with a resident of Harlestone, Northampton. I also had a research assistant working for me there back in 1995--delving into the nearby record center, copying old Camfield wills from the 1500s. She had to stop when she got to back to where they were written in Old English.
And so it goes. I guess the Camfields daughtered-out in Harlestone after Matthew's time. I'm told there was an Amy Camfield (related to Matthew) there who married a Cooch at some time, and that family name is still in the area. Don Cooch, a retired gentleman farmer, was still living there a few years and had been corresponding with an Internet correspondent of mine.