Yes, this list covers all those variations. Gloria Frazier List Manager At 04:47 PM 11/8/2000 -0500, you wrote: >Frazer people - please help me out on this, as I am new to this >list. Is >the FRAZIER list the same as the FRAZER list??? If not, why >not? As >family historians, we know that most of the surname spellngs we >find result >from someone who does NOT bear the name writing it down in one >record or >another. As we know - spelling was NOT our ancestors' long suit; >Shakespeare himself spelled his own name five different ways. > >I have seen stated as the first rule of genealogists: don't sweat >the >spelling! > >Many of our ancestors had limited, or no, ability to read and >write for >themselves. Even if they did, they were more often speaking >their names to >others to write down than writing themselves - when married, when >a death >took place, etc. As a result, names were reproduced phonetically >by the >clerks, etc., who took them down - and those who physically wrote >the names >may have been disinterested, hearing-impaired, or not very literate >themselves. > >The whole story of the development of surnames plays into this - >for a long >time people had no second names at all - then only certain people >did, who >needed to be identified with specificity - then it was seen that >second names >were useful and most people began to have them - but for another >long span of >time there was no one right way to spell each name; people did not >consider >it important. The preferred spelling of each name probably took >several >generations to establish itself. Till then, the spellings were >all over the >map. Other aspects of life played a part - as when a bearer of >name >derived from language A went to live in a country where language B >was >spoken: e.g., think Scots settling in New France in the early 1700s. > >Will someone let me know the prevalent tone or sentiment of this list >community on the above? > >I have FRASER/FRAZER/FRAZIER family to ask about, but will defer >for a few >days. > >Cheers to all, and thank you. > >Ginny Crawford >California USA >VCrawf@aol.com > >