Sounds like the same merry-go-around topic of the spelling of names on documents and how reliable those documents are again.:) Tenth verse, same chorus. I can find documents with various spellings on our own Autrey name but what does it prove when we have more documents with the name most generally used and on grave markers? Not even death certificates are guaranteed correct , nor are birth certificates or census records. My own birth certificate is incorrect, but my parents never took the time to correct it and now I haven't bothered as well...and probably won't due to all the paper work involved in it....anyone researching me is going to have to be more than a detective...Joe has an uncle who has an incorrect death certificate...when anyone looks for him, they will have a difficult time as it shows he died the day he was born at the age of 82! The family knows the certificate has errors, but they haven't changed it, guess they won't now as it has been several years since his death.. These errors are in today's records....how much easier for records of so long ago to be questionable when you consider all the possibilities of how they became that way. We can only go with what we find in their time period for how they were recorded. Jeannie McDuff Murphy, in the book "Absalom and Elizabeth Autrey and Their Descendants with a Section on Thomas Norris", page 174, obtained a copy of documents and has painstakingly transcribed and printed a section on Cornelius Autrey, 1720-1747, Granville Proprietary Land Office, Entries, Warrants, Surveys 1748 -1763 S. 108. 271 North Carolina Archives To see a copy of this document as it is transcribed and typed: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jmautrey/absalom/cautrey1720.htm Even within this one section of records, the name is spelled Autrey/Autry. To see more documents, you are invited to review: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jmautrey/absalom/aeautrey.htm Click on the Absalom Autrey Elizabeth Norris section on the top left of the page Since none of us were there when the first A* was spoken, written,or drawn into being, there is no proof that is absolute as to the "correct" spelling, given the different branches of the families, different locations and time periods. Today's records can be witness to this observation. I would believe it is possible there are many ways a name can be spelled during the history of time, and our individual spelling is just one of them, and it can change at any given time according to the times and the people recording it. I try to concentrate on finding my family members as they used their name in their time period, based on the combination of all known records, including family bibles, letters, and such as memories of the elders of the family. This is also one reason one must go from oneself backwards, not just jump in somewhere and try to prove lineage from someone to the present. The farther back one researches, the more likely the name will change and changes many times. When researching documents and sources, I use all variant spellings to avoid overlooking vital information to my own research. Jo Autrey jmautrey@email.msn.com Jo's Front Porch and Genealogy http://members.tripod.com/~JoMAutrey ----- Original Message ----- From: <AutreyGen@aol.com> Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 1999 10:15 PM Subject: [AUTRY] Has anyone found a document with Cornelius Autry's name on it? > This brings up an interesting question. Has anyone ever found an actual > document that they could send me a photocopy of that spells Cornelius > Autry/Autrey's last name? I would be very interested in seeing this. Also, > in posting it on the web page. >