Brickwalls, Name Variants - Opinions and Experience Please

[Norfolk Nan]

How do you deal with possible name variants when trying to break a brickwall? Remember my George Davison - after several years I'm no closer to cracking that particular puzzle having focused on Davison as clearly signed in the marriage register and used for his children's baptism. Davis/Davison/Davidson are just three variants used interchangeably by some families (remember the weaver and his randomly named family?) and there are other spellings (Davisson, Daveson, for example).

All I know about George is he wrote his name beautifully, married by banns in 1773, never applied for parish help, died without a will in 1790. No idea of his age or place of birth, relatives or occupation. Most of his children died as infants and there are no apprenticeship papers for those who lived. I don't want to give up but would pursuing every name variant be helpful given how little I have to go on? Please share your thoughts or experiences - everything would be useful right now.

Thank you.

[Mick Loney]

I can’t offer any specific suggestions regards spelling Davison, but it did cross my mind that the middle VI could be mistaken for W, so you could try looking for a Dawson. Just a thought

[meekhcs]

If the site you use allows wildcards then I would search Dav* rather than individually putting in possible variations. It should save time and the wild card search should pick up any possible variation. If the search doesn't produce anything then put in Daw*.

[Norfolk Nan]

Thanks, both. After the debate about Mick's FMP experience it seems sensible to try every and any variation in online searches and to repeat them several times, just to be sure. I've seen the Dawson mistake myself but what if it's not simply a mistranscription but a deliberate act? My own dad used to use Davis when it suited him (a bit of working class ducking and diving) and in the case of George the weaver I suspect his illiteracy made it easy for whichever clerk to write whatever they liked.

When there's so little information to help pinpoint a particular person, does it make sense to look at all the variations 'just in case' or to stick firmly to what is known - George's Davison was clearly and elegantly written with loops and flourishes, would that rule out pursuing any variation to you?