How I discovered my Pool/e line was really P'Pool

Long ago and far away...well...long ago and ..back in 1992, while living in Beaumont (1-1/2 hrs east of Houston on IH-10), I was in the Tyrrell Historical Library (originally built in 1903 as the First Baptist Church of Beaumont). I was looking over the census records of 1850 Breckinridge Co, KY for John Jones Pool or Poole. I found a family with the strange surnames, everyone had the middle initial "P". I thought ..WOW! They must all have a family name as a middle name or someone just like the "P"s. ..But why would the wife also have the strange name unless...it went together, like O'Hare?

Name: John P Pool
Age: 24
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1826
Birth Place: Kentucky
Gender: Male
Home in 1850 (City,County,State): District 2, Breckinridge, Kentucky
Household Members: Name Age
Logustine P Pool 46
Catharine P Pool 53
Martha P Pool 27
John P Pool 24
Emeline P Pool 18
Sandford D P Pool 16
John J P Pool 5

1850; Census Place: District 2, Breckinridge, Kentucky; Roll M432_193; Page: 45; Image: 284

I had never even heard of or seen the surname of P'Pool before so it was exciting to finally figure out what I was actually looking at. We had no idea about "P'Pool" or "Pettypool" from which "P'Pool" is a shortened version.

If you have a Pool, or a Poole, it may have once been P'Pool or Pettypool.