Dear Susan, I have never searched for another spelling of the Kepper name for a number of reasons. Following back the generations of my Dutch ancestors into Germany the name was always consequently written as Kepper. The oldest record on this familyname even dates back to 1418. The German internet telephone register lists about 260 Keppers. About 2/3 of them live in northern Hessen (around the city of Kassel) and in neighbouring areas of Northrhine-Westfalia and Lower Saxony. The name can be easily spelled and pronounced in both German and English. So German Kepper immigrants who came to America, felt no need to change their suname. I have one example I recently found out about. Johann Christoph Kepper, an older brother of my straight ancestor Johann George, leaves about 1755 his native village of Obermeiser near Kassel and later on joins the army of the prince of Brunswick. In 1776 his regiment is send to Quebec to fight the American rebels. In 1784 he leaves the army and settles in Nova Scotia and buys 213 acres of land. During my research I often came upon surnames wich are more or less similar like: Kipper, Kupper, Kapper and Kopper (sometimes with an "umlaut" and/or an "s" at the end) but also names like Keiper, Knepper, Klepper and Keppel. Sofar I have not found any relationship with the Hessian Keppers. Most records I have on American Keppers concern immigrants to the US in the period 1840 till 1860. It was not untill I found records with the Kepper surname in Pennsylvania from the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, and especially one in wich the country of birth is stated as Ireland, that I considered a Palatine connection. However there are of course other explanations possible: Keppers who already in the 18th century emigrated from Germany to America, and in Ireland (and maybe in Great Britain as well) there is a indigenous Kepper familyname wich is not related at all to Germany. I keep on searching. Anyway, Susan thanks again for your suggestions and with kind regards, Rene Kepper