n the past, name spellings were fluid. When someone was born and their name was entered in the family Bible, that was usually the way the name was spelled. However, sometimes that changed over the years for unknown reasons. The person might have decided to use a different name or a spelling variation. Or someone hearing the name might spell it differently as they hear it. Then it might become the ‘official’ spelling. Later on, those changes can cause confusion about the identification of the individual.
Examples:
Johannes Jensen changed his name to John Johnson. I don’t think it was done ‘legally’ he just started using it.
Grandma Johnson was originally Anna and later she started using Anne. Anne appears on her gravestone. I don’t think she ‘officially’ changed it, just started using it. I have lots of letters over many years, so I will pay attention to when she started using Anne. I hadn’t really thought much about it before.
Sarah Comorah – had several different spellings of Camorah. I will look back at that and compare the Bible record to her tombstone.
I have seen spelling variations in census records. That doesn’t necessarily change the spelling for common use. It might just mean the census taker was sloppy, had poor handwriting, and/or the person was not precise about their own name spelling. Sometimes the spelling variations are because the person or robot who indexed the listing interpreted the handwriting wrongly. An example is the 1910 Census record for the Eugene Lawless family. You won’t find that record looking for Lawless, but you will find it looking for Lawlers. Tricky!
Steven’s birth certificate spells DeCourcy and it was inscribed differently on his footstone and his death certificate. Maybe this officially changes the spelling? No big deal. Sometimes the name is spelled DeCoursey.
Justin did an official name change because he didn’t want Alphonsus as the first name on his driver’s license. I like having his full birth name on his footstone. If you have seen the paperwork on that name change, I would like to have a copy – at your convenience, of course.