One of the other issues to take into account in the spelling of names is the literacy of the individual. If the name was common, like Williams or Jones, the spelling usually remained the same, but not always. With more unusual names, if the individual was illiterate, they had to rely on others for the spelling, which could vary even in the same immediate family. Plus, spelling was not standardized until fairly recently, so in other words - anything goes. Foreign names can really be a challenge. I've seen the name "Valencic" spelled "Wallenchich" with Valencic being the "true" spelling and Wallenchich being the phonetic spelling of the name as it was originally pronounced. (the name is Slovene) Now the Valencic family pronounces it "Valensik" and wouldn't expect the Wallenchich name to have any connection to them, without knowing the original pronunciation. So basically, know all possible pronunciations of the name, and take the literacy of the individual into account as well.