All sorts of 'misspellings' occur in early records, which is why researchers have to be dogged in searching, especially in all the on-line indexes. It's also the reason why all the books and lecturers say to consult the original records. In other places in the same register, the father's surname is spelled Fogarty -- just what is the 'correct' spelling?<G> At least in an index, these different spellings all have the same Soundex code and will also show up relatively close together in a printed index, which is definitely not true of the Stableton/Hableton variants. In my own family, I have four baptisms in the same Minnesota River Valley parish by four different priests, varied in their ethnic backgrounds, with the family surname spelled four different ways (at least they all began and ended with the same letters -- it's the ones in between that are different)! I still have that subscription to the Minnesota Genealogical Journal up for grabs, if anyone can offer proof of the mother's surname..... Mary Mary Bakeman mbakeman@parkbooks.com Park Genealogical Books http://www.parkbooks.com