All genealogists are detectives working on the case of their ancestors. I eqate it to reading a never ending mystery novel. Every time we set out on a search, we receive clues along the way. It is up to us to PROVE the CLUES in order to take another step in our search. That doesn't mean it is going to be easy. Sometimes we overlook the obvious, other times it seems like we will never find our solutions. Even very experienced researchers have told me that they continue find new and varied spellings of names. Remember that the people doing the indices, websites, researching and also the original record takers are not perfect. We all make mistakes in copying material. A good thing to get in the habit of doing is: double checking your transcriptions. When you run across a new word, most people will sound it out. If you try to spell that word on your own without looking at it, you will probably make a spelling error. We are not so different than our ancestors. Now try to imagine a census taker hearing all the different names in a district. I don't know if they had a deadline to meet, but some had alot of territory to cover.