Different spellings of last names.

[Tiger Lily]

Does anyone else find it quite "annoying" that you look and look for an ancestor, and finally figure out there was an alternate spelling of the name you're looking for, so therefore it remained hidden from you for quite some time...but the light dawns! There they are! Does this happen to you? It sure happens to me. No consistency with spellings a hundred, two hundred, or three hundred years ago.

 

[Organist]

When people immigrated over to the U.S. from Europe, many of them couldn't read or write, so the immigration official just jotted down the name how it was pronounced. Going over to Europe to check out your ancestry will almost guarantee there is a different spelling to the last names. Frustrating.

 

[b_hebrew]

transliteration is a culprit sometimes

 

[little_lily613]

It can be frustrating, but I find it kind of interesting as well. But, as Angel said, when people came here, often times the name was just jotted down as they thought it might be spelled. I don't know how true this is, but I have found in my OWN search, that many names similar to my ancestors' names are related to ours. They may be different, but-usually if they are from the same area--they are from the same ancestor. It may not always be the case, but it is certainly common in my family history.

G~d bless,
~Little_Lily613~

 

[Cool CD]

One story I found in my family is a man had two sons and the oldest got to keep the name, but the youngest had to change the spelling so his family wouldn't be confused with his brothers. For example, the youngest son of an Ebersole might go by Ebersol (just dropped the E at end ). This may not have been all that uncommon. This does get confusing.