As an additional comment to my other recent post about transcribing, I need to say something about the statement "the correct name is....." Let me first offer the following example: My (ummm-- 4th??) great-great grandfather is listed on his tomstone as John ANTONY while his wife's tombstone beside him reads Elizabeth ANTHONY. In my later research, I have seen that for a period of time before 1830... and again in the 1880s -- and in a specific locality--- ANTHONY was *sometimes* (infrequently) spelled without the "h." Generations after 1830 seem to have settled on using the H. If I was transcribing this cemetery, I would type it AS IS. I would NOT add to my transcription "Correct spelling ANTHONY" --with the H. No matter how a surname is spelled today, or how many generations used a particular spelling, generally speaking, who can say what the "correct" spelling WAS ORIGINALLY? Even the earliest "original" spelling may have first been written down by someone who could not spell ! Or, they had a preferential "ear" for certain sounds (example: Is the sound spelled Schy___ or Schi___ ? for the sound shi (long i sound) Did the writer like how Schy looked? Or did they think that was the way it "should" be spelled? -- what about the CH? was it a hard sound or a ssss sound when pronounced.?) Was an accent a problem? -- was the name the German Beckar, or was it the English Baker? Many "recorders" in Court Houses (Recorder of Deeds, Recorder of Wills) were more educated than other people, but it is common to see variantions in how even ONE Recorder wrote the same name. And most Recorders were more "English" or had more of an English ear. Most non-English still had heavy accents in the 1700s & 1800s, so they would say their name "right" but how it was written down is another matter! Remember, most people did not write their own documents. They often went to the Court House or to a "learned" (learn-ed) neighborhood person, and the farmer or laboror would tell the writer what they wanted to accomplish (I'm selling my son-in-law 50 acres.) Remember also, Recorders copied documents--- so they could introduce a misspelling -- and that is what researchers read in those old docket books (not the original paper). With tombstones, we will never know IF: 1. The undertaker / stone mason who chiseled the stone could spell very well; 2. The family gave the spelling to the person who chiseled the name; 3. Whether the spelling the family gave was "correct" -- i.e. that it matched the spellingS used on other documents, tax lists, etc.; 4. Whether the funeral home director gave the name to the monument "company" (most monuments were sold by one person in a community, not by a company of persons like today) 5. Whether the person chiseling the name knew or knew of the family-- it is easier to remember how to spell someone's name if you've known the surname before. 6. Or, maybe the person felt certain they "knew" how to spell the name, but they didn't. So what's right to do if the tombstone you've searched for years has some ODD spelling on it? HOW do you let other researchers know that OBLISS is connected directly to you and YOUR name is OBLISK? You could use this: "Note: Spelled OBLISK in later generations" Or you can be more specific: "Note: Joseph OBLISS born 1801 died 1879 is the direct ancestor of Marie OBLISK, his 4th great-granddaughter. Generations after Joseph use OBLISK." Again, I hope I don't offend anyone by saying this, but I both cringe and chuckle when I see "The correct name is xxxxx." That statement is incorrect and never should be used in genealogy. Judy