Amanuensis Monday

Before I get started writing his blog, I would like to share that I learned a new word today, amanuensis. For those of you who are in the dark like I was geneabloggers.com defines an amanuensis as "a person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another." I'd like to transcribe something my aunt had in her genealogy records. It is a letter written by John Rae Tough and Mary Sinclair Tough, parents of Harold Winston Todd (Tough).

State of Ohio

Cuyahoga County,

State of Ohio

   John Rae Tough and Mary Sinclair Tough, being duly sworn depose and say:

   That they are the parents of Harold Winston Todd, formerly Harold Winston Tough, said name being used by their son because he did not like the name Tough on account of his being embarassed by his friends and acquaintances by calling him "Tough" and their son had intended to take court action to make the name "Todd" legal.

   Deponents state that they live at 1273 West 117th. St., Cleveland, Ohio, and Mrs. Mary Sinclair Tough's name was Mary Ingram Sinclair,

   Subscribed and sworn to before

   me this 22nd day of August 1942. Mary Sinclair Tough

                                                       John Rae Tough

George J.W. Mathews

George J.W. Mathews

Notary Public, Cuyahoga County, Ohio

5703 Detroit Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio

My commission expires April 19, 1944

The story behind this is that most of the children of John and Mary Tough didn't like the way their last name sounded in the United States. In Scotland, where they originated, Tough was pronounced differently than the word tough (strong or firm in texture but flexible and not brittle - via: www.merriam-webster.com). From what I can gather, Tough would be pronounced a little like the Loch in Loch Ness. More or less tock.

As Harold and his siblings were the first generation of Toughs to be born and to grow up in the United States, they had to deal with the teasing of their peers throughout their youth. Strangely this letter was written when Harold was 27 years old. He also had already been in the US Army for a year and five months.

I believe all of the other siblings changed their surname to Todd and eventually so did John and Mary. Although I don't have any evidence of this except all of the males in the family (and Mary) have Todd for their surnames on their gravestones.

I think a call to the Cuyahoga County Courts will be in order this summer.