Because I had a person spell our surname as GULER recently, I have been looking, once again, at the many spelling variations, that we run across, for this name. (FWIW, we happen to pronounce our name as COALER.) Let us, for this particular discussion, assume that the name was KÖHLER at sometime in the past. One way that a clerk might have written the name is KOHLER. >From this, we can use the common sense <G> of genealogy to look at some of the possible spelling changes. Let's go back to the 101 class. Any consonant might have changed for a "look-a-like" or a "sound-a-like". And, of course, any vowel accidentally, or on the part of a clerk trying to be efficient & correct, could have been changed for another. So, for example, we might go this way, through a set of changes: Kohler = Koller = Coller And, then, many times vowels were added for various reasons: Kohler = Koller = Coller = Collier (I am not suggesting here that COLLIER is always/ever an alternate spelling. Just that it is entirely possible that the name could turn up spelled this way.) Similarly, we might have a chain looking like: Kohler = Rohler = Ronler because of the sometimes look-a-like letters (in cursive writing) of K/R and h/n. I have not happen to run across the name Ronler, but we must not rule this out when we are searching. Kohler = Koller = Roller I think that we have even discussed this spelling in the past on one or more of these KÖHLER lists. Kohler = Cohler = Coller = Collar = Callar = Kallor = Kaylor = Kayler = Kailler = ??? Kohler = Kahler = Kaler = Caler = Caller = Oaller = Gallar = Galiar = ??? Kohler = Rohlar = Rallar = Roller = ??? This is just a small sampling of the many, many changes that may have occurred from one clerk to another and from one document to another. I have not found the time to go through any books to look for all of these different spellings to check on whether all of them are 'valid' spellings of names used today. But, I do know that even in today's world.... and even though we slowly and distinctly spell the name KOHLER --which we happen to pronounce like COALER-- for people, we very often get COHLER and COLER. (I even had a person come up with GULER recently... *after* I had spelled it for her more than once.) Discussions welcomed. (I know that this is tax-season and we are all busy, but let's see what we can squeeze in to our days.) This is fun stuff. ~~Leslie [Bridges] Kohler