BALLEW RESEARCH 101

I am writing this hoping to help the novice BALLEW researcher be more efficient and less frustrated. I should probably rename this - "Things I Have Learned the Hard Way".

Another researcher wrote me recently: "You would think that since the BALLEW name
is a fairly unusual one it would be easy to find…but -NO!- because it is spelled every which way anyone can imagine..............." With that statement, I introduce you to the #1 Stress Producer for the BALLEW researcher!

I personally have seen 36 of the spellings listed below and am sure there are more I haven't seen. I recently searched the web for all the spellings that have survived to present-day. I found only 9 out of 43 total NOT listed in current directories. That leaves 34 current spelling variations of which I am aware.

Balew Balleau Balleu Balleue Ballew Balliew Balliue Balloo Ballou Balloue Ballough Ballue Ballow Ballowe Ballows Baloo Balou Balough Balow Beauleau Beaulieu Belew Belleau Bellew Bellieu Belloo Bellow Bellowe Belou Belue Belyeu Bilew Billou Billoue Billow Bilue Bleau Blew Bloo Blue Boileau Bolue Bollow Bolow

Illiteracy was probably the primary reason we find varied spellings. If our ancestor
did not know how to spell his/her own name, spelling was done phonetically by the census taker/clerk. Their phonetic spelling was influenced by regional and/or cultural pronunciation as well as by the cultural orientation of the writer......……someone whose family originated from France would tend to spell phonetic sounds differently than someone from England, etc. Therefore, when the spelling is different than your own, never assume it is/is not someone from your line. Those are the ones I copy and place in my "?Is/Is Not?" folder for further research.

Then, there are transcription errors...I have found BALLEW spelled BELEN, BELLEN, BALEN, BALLEN, BALEEN, and BOLLON - most were people I knew were definitely BALLEWs, otherwise I would have missed them completely! The transcriber reads the
"w" or "u" at the end as an "n" and makes research decidedly more interesting for us!

Due to all the above, the BALLEW researcher (of any spelling) must broaden his/her search considerably! In printed and/or computerized indices, I now look carefully at all names beginning with Ba, Be, Bi, Bo, and Bl. When doing a search of a database,
I search for every spelling. It is time-consuming and labor intensive, but must be done
if we are to find most of our ancestors.

I did not know this when I started, therefore am now going through several previously researched records again.

Two more hints to leave with you regarding this spelling problem:
1)The name may be spelled one way in an index and another way in the referenced document.
2) It may be spelled more than one way in a single document!
Happy Hunting! ~Gwen

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