One of the most frustrating things we run into doing our family research is the haphazard spelling of names. We blame the County Clerk, the tax collector, the census taker - everyone. What WAS the correct spelling? We are much more concerned about how our names are spelled than they were in the past! Even with the 5-letter name of Gorin, it can be found as Goren, Goran, Gorum, Goram, Gorham, Goring ... scream coming! Were they "ours" or not? In the past, people just weren't that worried about how their name was spelled. Many could not write or read themselves and the name was just said. It was up to others how it showed up on paper. Government was smaller; there were less forms for them to fill out! One might find the census record spell the name Smith; the tax collector spell it Smythe; the marriage license might show Smithee, etc. etc. Add in an accent from a Scotsman speaking to an Irishman; or an Englishman speaking to a German ... anything is possible. One classic incident here in Barren Co was a deed. We had the following families here: Dickerson, Dickinson, Dickson and Dixon. In that one deed, the seller's name was spelled all those ways - I guess the clerk wanted to be sure he got it right! In an incident in our own family; we were hunting many years ago for the grave of one Gladin Gorin. In asking around the area if there had ever been any Gorin families there we were often told, "no, but there were a lot of Gorums." Lo and behond, we followed the lead and found Gladin Gorin's grave on a tall hill in Erin, TN. Names got changed when they were Americanized also. Nicknames were often used for first names such as Sally for Sarah; Polly for Mary, Big Bill, Black John (had black hair!), and I've seen "John's son" instead of a first name. So - you need to check variants in the spellings, especially in the surname. Also - as a little clue: When researching surnames in books or on the internet, you might have to check the first name when looking for the last name. In indexing some records, volunteers might have reversed the names so Richard Garnett might be indexed as Garnett Richard(s). This happens sometimes when the old clerk or tax man was entering all the names in alphabetical order by the last name and had a lapse of memory and entered the next name in alphabetical order by the first name. So, unless you have an "easy" name such as Smith and Jones which are normally easy to spot - try pronouncing the surname in various ways. Think of variations that would cause the name to be spelled differently. And finally, watch out for letters to be written so that a Clark might be transcribed as a Clack. F's and T's are often hard to decipher. A double ss at the end of the name could be transcribed as a p. I's and J's were written identically for many years (and indexed together). L's and S's were written in a similar manner also. Play detective and we may never know how the spelling of the name started out! Sandi Sandi's Puzzlers: http://www.gensoup.org/gorinpuzzles/index.php