Walter, I agree that the name in many instances was interchangable. I've seen people who are descended from the same ancestors as myself who spell their name with an S. However, the reasons are different. In Colonial America most of the early settlers were very litterate being very dedicated to reading the Bible and interpreting it their way. The reason for the wide variance in spelling is that before Dr. Johnson in England and Noah Webster in America there were no accepted dictionaries of the English language. Someone as literate as Thomas Jefferson used various spellings of the same word. Then you get into the accepted variations of English in the UK and American English. I have seen my family's name spelled as Wode, Wod, Woode Jim Wood