http://www.psnw.com/~concord4/Land%20Titles.htm Take a look at the paragraph just before the heading of *Grants & Patents*...this could be an explanation as to why the various spellings within the same documents....most interesting.... It appears the name is spelled in the body of the deed the way it was pronounced but the signature was spelled the way it should be spelled....Coats/Coate/Coates may have been pronouced Cote/Cotes ...not sure I can get a Cole or Coles out of that...but Coots for Coats would work... Isn't that interesting...not sure I'm real clear on the part about which spelling to always check for... This just all gets more and more confusing...<g>... Char<br clear=all><hr>Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at <a href="http://explorer.msn.com">http://explorer.msn.com</a><br></p>