John Sents <jsents@stny.rr.com> wrote: > How's the best way to handle entering multiple surname spelling > variations in my genealogy program... when the person used different > ones or the records show different ones? Well, I've seen quite a bit of this. If I can find their name written by them, I'll use the spelling they did rather than, say, that of a census-taker. If they're inconsistant (sometimes on the same document), then that's a sure bet that they weren't all that clear on how it should be spelled, and then I just pick a reasonable spelling from a later generation and make notes about the various spellings seen and where/when. Not a perfect system, but it's the best I came up with. Lots of our ancestors were, after all, doing things phoenetically. Dave Hinz davehinz@spamcop.net