Good Afternoon!!! Working in Gallia County, Ohio. Spellings are never Via always Vier, Viers, Viar, Viars, etc. So will go with the tombstone method. Just a interesting fact. A descendant family in Elkton, VA. The name spelled three different ways and they were all brothers and sisters buried in the same plot. Had to laugh. The only thing that got my attention was the middle name "Maupin". Several children in the family only one married, others died single and they all lived in the same area. So they had to have known the spellings was different. William -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] <[email protected]> To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Date: Sunday, November 17, 2002 12:37 PM Subject: Re: [VIA-L] What Spelling to Use >In a message dated 11/17/2002 8:46:39 AM Pacific Standard Time, >[email protected] writes: > > >> I want to make it easy for future generations to verfy my work. Should I >> put in a footnote explaining the different spellings? >> > >William, >I can't really recommend one method or another. When I started my database >everyone was put in with the Via spelling. That way when I was searching I >could find the person I was looking for regardless of the spelling. In the >event fields I created a category for name spelling and added the various >spellings I found for an individual. > >But I have started editing that method because in later generations the >spellings used seemed to stay consistent down to current generations. So if >I find documentation such as census records, headstone inscriptions, obituary >notices, etc. and it seems to appear that that line took a particular >spelling I am changing the names in my database to reflect their spelling. >Better a little inconvenience for me than to misrepresent a familys name. > >Judy > >