"Singhals" <singhals@erols.com> wrote: > Was it Jefferson or Franklin who didn't trust a man who could > spell his name only one way? Actually, Jefferson and Franklin were literate. It was Andrew Jackson who said he didn't truest a man who couldn't spell a *word* more than one way. <vbg> IN response to the original question, rephrased by John as follows: > what I was wondering is: if there is some accepted 'scheme' > for entering the applicable Surname variations, such as: > SENTS/Sentz/Zentz or SENTS (Sentz Zentz)? This way, > someone doing a SEARCH on any one of the variations > gets my data. My treatment close approximates the approach you have taken, Cheryl. I use the name as currently used by the family and carry that back to the original immigrant, who usually is carried with the name he was given as it may have been recorded in "the old country and, in some instances. From there, I go down the generations using the spellings as generally used by the family. I have two or three illustrations. First, my fourth great grandfather, Johann Georg Bentz, and four of his sons - Johann Ludwig Bentz, Johann Jacob Bentz, Johann Adam Bentz and Johann Heinrich Bentz. Georg disappears after his arrival in Pennsylvania with his family in 1749. There are a couple of Pennsylvania records that apparently refer to his sons, but by 1754 they were all in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Once in Virginia the four sons are almost universally referred to as Lewis Pence, Jacob Pence, Adam Pence and Henry Pence. There are records in Shenandoah County which sometimes mention a Pentz or a Bentz, but if you go to the rather extensive records in the court house in Woodstock and look through the indexes you will find no person named Bentz, one person named Pentz (and I can't figure out why this index entry, as the name is clearly rendered as Pence in the original!) and all the rest of the entries are indexed as Pence. (And here I need to says that I have not found very satisfactory at all the solution suggested by others; "Use the spelling you find in the record." My experience there is that I often find two or more spellings of the same name in the same record! What do I do then? Flip a coin?) A second example is another family I cam currently working on in my one-name PENCE surname study. This related to a Johannes Bentz who emigrated with his brother Michael from Germany to Pennsylvania in the early 1780s. These two still have many descendants in York County and elsewhere in Pennsylvania. In recent months, however, I discovered - with the help of a letter in a probate file in Warren County, Ohio - that one Jacob Pence of that county was a grandson of the immigrant Johannes Bentz. The letter, incidentally, is from Michael Bentz of York County to his cousin John Pence of Warren County and is in reference to the estate of the grandfather of the cousins. In it Michael says "the English" call him Pence but he prefers to spell the name the way his ancestors did. Jacob Bentz is the original entry for the grandson, who went first to Virginia and then to Ohio, but all of his descendants are listed as Pence, the name they used. Third, I will mention some anomalies. One family spelled its name as Pence from the 1700s, but a large group of them went to Arkansas as "Pence" before 1850 - but after 1850 the name almost always appears as "Pense." A man whose father and grandfather used the name Pence in Virginia moved to Ohio, where his name is always rendered as Pentz. The children and grandchildren are Pence sometimes and Pentz at other times; these I enter under the name they apparently preferred. Just today I found the marriage of one Horace Pence to Hortense Ridgeway (a marriage made in heaven! <g>). His great-great grandfather and his great grandfather used the name Pence, his grandfather used the name Pentz, his father used the name Pence and Horace himself was married under the name Pence and in 1900 his is listed as Pence - but in 1910, 1920 and 1930 he is Horace Pentz! There are a couple of other families whose immigrant ancestors came as Bentz and who quickly became Pence now have descendants named Pentz. and in cases similar to the Arkansas group, a single son of a family known as Pence for some reason became Pense and are so today. In each of the above instances, I try to use the name used today by the family and to carry that back into the generations until the change occured. With respect to John's query, like others have suggested, there is no clear path to follow. However, since the name Zentz, Sents, etc., presents some parallels to Bemtz, Pentz and Pence or Pense, I would suggest to him that if he follows a pattern similar to what I have outlined above, then the chances are good that several of the variations he has encountered will also appear in his database, where others will find them. I also suggest that those researching that name no doubt realize they have to cover all the bases in their research by checking all the variations in spelling. Finally, I think it was Bob Gillis who pointed out that TMG allows entry of multiple names - all searchable. While this doesn't help others looking at hour online entry, it does help you! Regards, Richard "Richard A. Pence" <richardpence@pipeline.com>

"Richard A. Pence" <richardpence@pipeline.com> wrote: > I have two or three illustrations. I'm having a similiar situation. My ggrandfather.... the ellis island record lists him as Sprencz in 1904. Street directories from 1905-1910 list him as Princz/Printz/Princ His dec of intent lists (1910) him as Prince His sons baptism record lists him as Sprencz (1909) Cenus of 1910 lists him as Printz Census of 1920 lits him as Prince Records of his son are under Sprentz and Princz His son kept the Sprentz name, he kept all the others. This has made them extremely hard to track. Especially since the son was found on the 1930 under the spelling Spruetz. What a nightmare!! I still don't know the name my ggrandfather died under. Can't find him after 1920. And all these variants withing 26 years with 2 generations. asprentz@hotmail.com

> "Richard A. Pence" <richardpence@pipeline.com> wrote: > > > I have two or three illustrations. > > I'm having a similiar situation. My ggrandfather.... > the ellis island record lists him as Sprencz in 1904. > Street directories from 1905-1910 list him as Princz/Printz/Princ > His dec of intent lists (1910) him as Prince > His sons baptism record lists him as Sprencz (1909) > Cenus of 1910 lists him as Printz > Census of 1920 lits him as Prince > Records of his son are under Sprentz and Princz > > His son kept the Sprentz name, he kept all the others. This has > made them extremely hard to track. Especially since the son was > found on the 1930 under the spelling Spruetz. What a nightmare!! I > still don't know the name my ggrandfather died under. Can't find > him after 1920. And all these variants withing 26 years with 2 > generations. > > asprentz@hotmail.com If you think this one was bad you ought to see all the ways Neuenschwander has gone. One cousin told me he had counted 80 and listed them and sense then I have probably found that many more. Sure hard to look for them in the census, too. Deana (Niceschwander) Smith PS Ours seems to be the only line that went with that spelling, and one of ours went without the sch. (3 generations back.) [ Surname spelling variations are terribly common. "Leverich" has been spelled dozens of ways, though I spell it today precisely the way that the progenitor of the American branch (and the *other* Cambridge man in the family) did almost four hundred years ago. - Mod ] "Dora Smith" <deanae@alltel.net>