I've found, for the most part, that each one of my direct line surnames has, oh, at least ten different spellings. That's no exaggeration. Within a one-paragraph original document, written by one Colonial county clerk (supposedly the most educated man around town), a surname was spelled four different ways. There's all kinds of speculation as to why this can happen. Expect as many spellings as you can imagine, and more besides. Some even change the way the name sounds quite significantly, especially the further back one goes in the research. --Carol (Huffington > Carlisle > Bowen > Truitt > Barnes) Menges ----- Original Message ----- From: <Vitocarlu@aol.com> To: <BARNES-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2004 12:05 AM Subject: [BARNES] BARNES misspelled Barns > Just an add-on to your extensive list...my dad used to tell us that our > BARNES line was originally BARNESS (or BARNESSE?). He had some old documentation > on it that I will try to find. > Carla >