Mary A. Kunkle wrote: > > Hi, Fellow Texan, > Dick, my husband's family spells their surname Kunkle and for many years > thought there was no relationship to Kunkel. However, a document was > found where an ancestor gave his two sons some property and each signed > their name at the bottom. One signed his name Kunkle and the other, > Kunkel. //////////////////////////////////////////////// I have a similar 1841 court document signed in Port Royal, Juniata Co. PA wherein the father appears to sign his name John C. Kunkle and his son appears to sign the same document John C. Kunkel, Jr. Precision in spelling names was not as important in those days as it is now, and variant spellings within families and within clans is not at all uncommon. A fact not well known is that English law permitted a person to change their name legally without recourse to court action, and the new name became established by "custom and usage." English law applied in the Colonies and many English practices, including those for names, continued to be legal in the United States for decades after the end of the Revolution in 1783. For example, my 4th great-grandfather purchased a farm in Juniata Co. in 1802 for "pounds sterling," and at the same time he changed his surname from ZULAUF to SULOUFF simply by "custom and usage." It was his daughter, Mary Zulauf>Sulouff, who wed John C. Kunkle and who was the mother of John C. Kunkel, Jr. Nelson R. Sulouff