Charles, You are so correct about the spellings. According to a genealogy speaker at a recent conference, spelling the the US was not considered important at all (in any situations- not just names) until about the 1920s.... I wish I had known this when I began my family research in the 1970s. If the name was not spelled PHELAN as my grandmother wrote it, I did not look at the records. As I thought as the time, "That couldn't be my line; they don't spell it the same." Now I'm having to go back through the same records I researched over 30 years ago! Brenda Kleager