On 14/05/2015 04:43, Barton Lewis wrote: > I’d like feedback on how people handle alternative spellings of a > surname. My ancestor, Jacob’s will spells his surname BACHTEL. In the > censuses, he spells it: BECHTOL (1830); BACHTEL (1840); BECHTEL (1850); > and BECHTAL (1860). His grave marker spells it BECHTELL which is the > way his father spelled it in the few documents which survive for him. Is > there a best practice for how to handle these situations? The most used > spelling, for example, or the spelling where it was likely verified > (signed) by the party (e.g., the will)? In the censuses, I would > imagine, the party told the census taker his name and (possibly) spelled > it for him, or not, or even if he did, the census taker wrote it the way > he wanted to. Any thoughts are appreciated.
Opinions differ! Some people like to include all the variations they find as AKAs. Personally, I don't. (I use the AKA field for names by which someone was actually also known, not just a spelling variation that crops up occasionally.) In an example like yours I would use BACHTEL as the person's surname, but when creating Census Events I would have something like "He appeared in the 1830 Census as Jacob Bechtol...", "He appeared in the 1850 Census as Jacob Bechtel ..." and so on. I nearly always include a transcription of a Source Document and will always use the spelling found in the document. Occasionally it is difficult to decide what is the "proper" or usual spelling to be used as the family Surname. Mostly I will go by what is on the Baptism Register or Birth Certificate or sometimes by the one that appears most frequently in documents. Two of my main family lines are Dodd and Bloor. Both are open to frequent variations such as Dod or Dodds and Blower or Blewer, but Dodd and Bloor are the way the names have been consistently spelled in the 20th Century when spelling was more fixed so those are the family surnames I use. -- Jenny M Benson Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://support.legacyfamilytree.com Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
