Well, mine EMPHATICALLY knew that it was spelled w/OUT an "A," and anyone who spelled it WITH an "A" was NOT related to us. As mine couldn't read and write for a couple of generations b/4 my father, by the census, I'm not sure what it means. But, as we certainly belonged to Scots-Irish clans which could hold a grudge for at least a millenium, I've come to believe it quite possibly represented a long-ago feud w/some other branch of the family, to whom we most emphatically were not going to be considered related. Just my opinion. Wilda McMurry