Hans, Exact spelling of surnames really never mattered. Many of our ancestors could not spell. An "X", as more of a plus sign, was often more common in a Marrige register than an actual signature. Finding a signed entry within the Catholic register was certainly a wonderful find as it meant the ancestor had raised him at least to the point where he had tha ability to sign his name. Finding the wife's signature was even more exhilarating. An ancestor had a surname which his family knew but for spelling perhaps each new Priest had a variation based upon his individual pronounciation. For your Gerwitz name, while I did little in trailing it back, my earliest Simon who married Maria Theresia Haas is spelled Goerrwitz within my database. Certainly this could mean that the name Görrwitz/Görwitz might also have been used in Church records. (Goerrwitz also could mean I misread the filmed Church register.) In my own Sauer ancestry, the surnames Sur, Saur and Sauer were used in part by usuage in time but Sur and Saur as well as Saur and Sauer did each parallel the other in some years. I had not had access to any great number of the currently printed Familienbücher but from those I had used for research, it would appear as though the compiler used the current spelling of the name to keep a continuity within his own records (and your records). ---------- We might be able to compare surnames within our ancestry with Colonial American surnames where the value of spelling was of such little value that often brothers within a family each used slightly differently spelled surnames. djweber djwdjw@ix.netcom.com