What a Difference an "A" Makes

At birth Lois was registered as Lois Hearn: H-E-A-R-N.  That’s the way her father Bob spelt his last name and that’s the the way that Bob Hearn’s older sister Ada spelt her name.  But their younger brother George wrote his name as Hern (without the letter “A”).  Family lore blamed Ada for wanting to rise above her station and for thinking that the “A” made the name appear to be more posh.  While there may be some truth in the story that Ada wanted to be more posh, it also appears that this family simply didn’t have a consistent way of spelling their name.  Here are three examples of how the name was spelled.  The first example is how the census taker spelt the name in 1861 after the family left Devonshire England to settle in Bowmanville, Ontario.  The signature at the top left is how Robert signed his name on a document in 1920.  And finally, here is the explanation for why some signed their name as Hearn and others signed their name as Hern. For many years, according to this affidavit the name had been “indifferently spelt”.  For those of us who are interested in this type of thing, it means that we who spell our name Hearn  can claim a blood relationship with Riley Hern whose name appears in the Stanley Cup.   We are all of the same family.