[email protected] (Pj) writes: > I personally think the multiple spellings of a surname was born of > circumstance > rather than cleverness. Maybe he couldn't spell his last name and neither > could the > census taker or town hall clerk. I am with Pj. My family started out as WINBOURNE - an English man of obvious stature, as he was given land rights to plant in Virginia from the King in the early 1600's. The WINBOURNES lived in Virginia for about 50 years. As it was a wilderness, I have to think that schooling was very basic, and perhaps WINBOURNE himself had to do the schooling for his children and grandchildren. By 1700, WINBOURNE's grandchildren's last name became WINBORNE, (no "U") as noted in will documents. Perhaps the original Planter WINBOURNE and his children, who may have been schooled back in Britain in proper English schools, may have been the only teachers for his offspring in the new world. By the 1700's, the WINBORNEs began to migrate to North Carolina, where they lost the "E", then into the deep wilderness of Kentucky, where I'm sure reading 'riting and 'rithmetic was taught by the parents or some other make-shift school house. Around that time, the farming WINBORN family became WINBURN forever. Ironically, another branch of WINBORNE's migrated to South Carolina and Alabama in the late 1700's or early 1800's - where their name magically became WINBURN as well. Valerie