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Olde Crone
16-06-12, 20:33
Does anyone believe in this surname? I have googled extensively and can only find a handful of people with this name.

I would very much like it to be a mistranscription of LEWIS. What are my chances of that, do you think please?

OC
Phoenix
16-06-12, 20:51
Outside of I, Claudius, chances are remote of it being a real name. Lewis sounds much more likely.
Merry
16-06-12, 21:06
Some on Ancestry seem to be mistranscriptions for Liviers.
Olde Crone
16-06-12, 21:07
Thankyou Phoenix, you are now my new best friend.

The only snag is, this woman is consistently recorded as Livius....

OC
Phoenix
16-06-12, 21:23
Hmm. More than once argues a name the recorders haven't experienced before. I'd have thought they'd have heard of Lewis?

Perhaps she had a speech impediment?
Merry
16-06-12, 21:33
Some on Ancestry seem to be mistranscriptions for Liviers.

Or Levins
kiterunner
16-06-12, 22:30
There are 14 entries for Livius in the National Probate Calendar on ancestry. I can't see those all being mistakes.
Janet
17-06-12, 05:10
It's not common, but it's not nonexistent either. I picked up 10 current address/phone listings, 5 in the U.S. and 5 in Canada, on anywho.com.
Olde Crone
17-06-12, 08:12
Hmmm, I agree it's unlikely that 14 were mistakes but it is very compelling if you write "Livius" in ornate handwriting, it could so easily be LEWIS and I wonder if it was misrecorded at some point in the past and "assumed" from there on in to be the correct spelling of the name?

I'm clutching at straws here.

OC
Olde Crone
17-06-12, 08:28
AHHHHHH, THANKYOU Kate! I have just looked at the probate list and the first entry is for Charles BARHAM Livius - Barham is a significant name in my search and has, I think, solved my puzzle. (Livius was in this case a real name as Charles Barham Livius published under this name). I still think it was originally LEWIS as the family hailed from Wales originally.

OC