Hey David: I can't say that my grade school students are more meticulous about spelling -- they spell phonetically, the same way a lot of folks do -- this explains why we see so many different spellings of the name Hamrick!! As for our branch, it is spelled without the 'e', but people outside our family still add a 'b'!! No wonder we all have such a hard time tracing our lineage!! Any luck in finding Thomas B.'s burial site or any new leads?? Ginger