One of our listers asked the following question, off the list: Do you know if the Rockbrigde Aignor/Agner/Aegender family had a preferred spelling? I realize there isn't likely to be much consistency in the documents of the period, but I was curious if you knew how the name evolved. I thought others might be interested in knowing the answer, so I thought I'd give a shot at it to the entire list. She is right in that there seems to be little consistency in the documents. We have over 50 variants of the name! When Johannes Aegender first arrived at Philadelphia in 1731, he was required to sign his name on two passenger lists. We are lucky, he did not sign with an X. In both lists the signature looks like Johannes Agender, only the A has an unusual umlaut over it. Instead of the usual two dots, Johannes' is like a the short vowel mark--kinda like a u. (BTW, these signatures match his power of attorney, written in NC, shortly before his death--only it looks more like Agnder) When Rupp wrote his book on the PA Germans, he interpreted the name as Aegender, only it's that funky AE that are merged together, and really one letter. Other authors interpreted as Egender or Egenter. At his naturalization in 1747, the author listed it as Eigenter. Once he gets to what is now Lehigh County--then Bucks, the church records show a few variants, like Egener or Agener. (The records of Bucks/Lehigh are often confused with another immigrant by the name of Johan Mathias Egner--his family generally kept the Egner name, but I have some instances where a document spelled it Agner, etc.) When Johannes and his son Henry settle in Rowan Co, NC, the name was generally spelled Agenor/Agener or Agender or Aginder, early on. In some case Eggender or Agendar. And in a couple cases, the more traditional Agner. By about 1800, the name was fairly consist of being Agner or Agnor. (The records of Rowan may also be confused, as there is a Jacob Egner who appears there, whom I believe to be the eldest son of Johan Mathias Egner f Bucks/Lehigh) At the same time Johannes and Henry were in Rowan, Johannes' son Ludwig remained in what is now Northhampton PA for awhile, then moved onto what is now Washington Co, Maryland. In these places the name became Egender, Agener/Aegener, or Aigner. In some cases, Igender, Igonder, Igantor, Eigener, Eagoner or Eagner. In one case in 1790, the name took on it's more traditional spelling as Agner. The earliest spellings of Ludwig's son John in Rockbridge, seem to be Eigander or Aignor, then by the 1820s the name was Eigner/Eignor with the beginnings of Agner/Agnor or Egnor. Meanwhile, about the same time, Ludwig's grandson George in Ohio seems to have always used the Agner spelling. And of course, in all these timeperiods, in various documents, other spellings were of course used as well. But in the end, the spelling that was used most often--in NC, VA, or OH--became Agner. A few branches became Agnor or Egnor. Please note this only applies to the Aegender line. There are different lines with the Egner, Egnor, Agner, Aigner/Aignor, and Egender names. Not all these are variants of the Aegender name, but are legitimate in their own right, with their own immigrant ancestor. We have not attempted to trace the Johannes Aegender line into Switzerland to see how it was spelled there. Hope this helps someone! --Celia Hartmann, List Owner