Hi Everyone, It's me again. Due to the sheer volume of response to last night's query, I'm posting this to the list. I will respond to everyone individually, but not tonight, it's late, I'm tired and I didn't expect nearly the reponse I received. Thanks to everyone who responded, I do appreciate that you took the time and effort to answer my question. And I sincerely apologize to those of you who were offended at 'the ridiculous attempt to put a religious sterotype to the spelling of a name". That is a paraphrase, more than one person was offended and I am truely sorry. That wasn't my intent, nor did I mean to imply that the axiom was true. It was a question asked, not a theory stated. I asked because my elder was so positive about his answer, it is true that, so far at least, records have shown that all of our Kelley's have historically been not only active, but usually quite prominent in the Protestant Church (there have been many minisiters in my branch of Kelleys), and when I started making an informal poll among my own family, unanimously all the elders, sided together. I have a great deal of respect for my elders. Yes, they sometimes believe old wives tales and hand them down as fact. But had their position been borne out by the responses I got, it would not have been the first time that they knew something I didn't. So you see, it truely was a question I felt I needed an answer to, not an attempt to sterotype anyone. I also did not mean to force everyone to cover ground that had already been hashed out long ago. I am fairly new to the listing and juno is a mail service, not a net provider. I didn't realize that the question had already been asked and answered. To those of you who are interested in the results of the polling....... Among my family members, as I have already stated, the elders are unanimous in their belief "Kelley" = Protestant. Kelly = Catholic. Among the younger generations, 31% side with the elders, the other 69% believe the spelling was a combination of unstandardized spelling and literacy. Of the e-mail responses I got, again 30% had had the same tradition handed down to them. 12% were from Catholic "Kelleys". 18% were from Protestant "Kellys". The other 30% had never heard the theory before, didn't think the spelling made any difference, thought it may have held true at some time in the past, but no longer mattered, had found their own name spelled both ways in the records,sometimes, even in the same record, expressed curiousity about what response I got to the question, or put forth the unstandardized spelling and literacy theory. A few of you shared some wonderful stories or histories from your own knowledge, experience and family history. I loved hearing from some of you about the evolution of the Kelley name. I truely mean that, I love that sort of 'history lesson'. Thanks to all of you, Jan ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]