War Diaries Talk

N°41841 McLauchlan or McLaughan or McLaughlan

  • erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be by erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be

    According to the diary n° 41841 is a corporal who is promoted to be a sergeant. The 1st and the 2nd name can be found In LWW1 and in The National Archives. They have both the same servicenumber 41841 and the same initials The McLauchlan is a sergeant and McLaughan is a private. The corporal in the diary has also the initials A.E.. The 3rd name is the name mentioned in the diary. I think it's three times the same person, but I don't know which name is the correct one.

    Posted

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    In this case, it's best to tag the name as it appears in the diary.

    Both Lives of the First World War and the cards at the National Archives have errors, as I'm sure some of the diaries do, too. But when there is this kind of confusion, we should stick with the diary.

    Posted

  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    Definitely! McLaughlan is one of those names with multiple variant spellings, so it's entirely possible somebody filling in the medal index cards has made an error. Or even that the error is in the diary. But without knowing which, Cynthia's absolutely right to say tag it as it appears in the diary. It might also be worth adding a link to this page to the Lives life story page too, if you were so inclined.

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  • erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be by erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be

    The link to The Lives https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/search#Category=lifestories&FreeSearch=41841&PageIndex=1&PageSize=20&Facets[0][Key]=corps_s_mv&Facets[0][Value]=Royal+Army+Medical+Corps

    Posted

  • erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be by erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be

    I have another "misspelled" name: the diary says MacSweney, but in LLW1 and inThe National Archives it is MacSweEney. Why is the spelling of "wrong" names often the same in LWW1 and the National Archives? Are they copies? If not, is it not possible that the names in LWW1 and TNA are correct?

    Posted

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    Actually, yes, the information in Lives of the First World War came from the Medal Cards held by the National Archives, so they are copies. And as I have stated before, there are many errors on those Medal Cards.

    MacSweney or MacSweeney is also a case where either one could be correct. Names like this that begin with Mac or Mc have different spellings because they come from the Gaelic spoken in Scotland and Ireland. To put those names into an English spelling resulted in variations depending on local area and how the writer heard the Gaelic sounds to put into English.

    MacSweeney is actually the far more used form of this name, but, as with Sgt. McLaughlan above, you should tag it as it appears in the diary because we don't know for certain which is correct.

    Posted