There seems to be several reasons for name changes in the 19th century. The vast majority of rural folks couldn't read or write, especially by today's standards. Census takers were not much better & were often political appointments, with little or no consideration of their literate abilities. Census takers often took info from children, when the parents were out in the fields, etc. even from neighborhood children, or so I have been told. After all, it was a long way back into the Smith Hollow, to find the Smith Family. Didn't want to make too many trips, if you could help it. In this area, the 1880 census was taken in the dead of winter, so the weather didn't help. Also, foreign born folks, of which there were many during this era, would sometimes "westernize" their names, so as to blend in with the local folks. And, there was also the dreaded "war tax", which the new "union backed" government imposed on locals, to pay for the war. Many families would change their names slightly, in an attempt to hide from the tax collectors. Jess Lewis