I also have a family attached to my tree and after WWII the military accidentally changed the spelling of his name so he kept it that way.. went from Ramer to Reamer I agree that confusion over mail would easily result in a change. I got several pieces of mail for someone with my exact name/same spelling, a couple streets over and I assumed that she was getting my mail (and not returning it) because sometimes bills would just not show up) I ended up switching the bills over to my husbands name so there was not as much confusion. I also have a LÜDLOFF that becomes LUEDLOFF, not sure if the Ü with two dots translates to UE??? Linda On Nov 29, 2006, at 10:52 AM, Thehensons@aol.com wrote: > Spelling of names is only important to people of the present day. We > take > great notice of how a name is spelled. In the 1860's you will not > find a record > of a name change, unless it is a divorced woman, taking back her > maiden name. > If you pay attention to spelling and do not research all variations > of how > your name could be spelled, you are missing the boat. > > Adding an extra M is not a big change. Sometimes people dropped > endings or > "Van" or "De" before a surname. > > In my own Spalding family, a man was released from WW I and they > spelled his > name Spaulding. Do you think he waited for the paper work to be > changed? It > would have delayed his getting out of the service, so to this day, his > descendants spell their name Spaulding. Yet, they are as close as > first cousins. > > A young person born out of wedlock will be listed with one surname in > one > census, then with a totally new surname in the next census, and they > have never > gone to court. . . In the 1800's people took in children, but never > went to > court to adopt them. I have seen one formal adoption in a deed record > in the > 1880's. > > Two Matlock families lived near each other and they kept getting their > mail > mixed up. So, one decided to become Medlock instead of Matlock. This > is a > true story. > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > List Guidelines: > http://www.rootsweb.com/~illinois/JacksonCoWelcome.html > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > ILJACKSO-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >